1049Defense of a nation

posted by Chris on January 9th, 2007

More and more, I have been getting a little bit anxious about going abroad again. Not for any of the expected reasons, but because I don’t want to have to defend the actions of my country. Mostly because I can’t defend them. Not having a rational explanation of the dealings of my country to give to foreigners who inquire is just disheartening. There was a time when pride for my nation was swelling and rightly so. Now, even at the suggestion from the study abroad administrators, I should assume the identity of a Canadian in order to save myself the trouble of being stereotyped as an American.

I never really realized the depth of how much this has affected me. There’s so many great things about my country that I want to be proud of and share, but there’s still so much currently that overshadows what I am proud of. I know what it must have felt like for the Chinese students I interacted with in China when I asked them about their country and how it has handled itself.

It’s coming to a point where I am almost ashamed of being an American simply because I had a part in deciding all of the things which have caused such a rift between ourselves and the rest of the world.