[Mr 5 0]

America is the greatest country on earth; the freest, richest and militarily strongest nation that probably ever existed. We got that way in a tad over 200 years mostly due to the freedom we offered to any and all of our citizens to do and be whatever they were able to be, unrestricted by caste, class, religious bigotry or financial or social status. Tens of millions of immigrants struggled to come to America and taste it's freedom, and they were welcomed. The immigrants repaid the nation with their hard work, creativity and loyalty and helped make us the strong, wealthy and powerful country we remain, today.

America fought one war to be free, another to free others from slavery and others to free the world from tyranny and evil and that fight goes on, today, in Iraq and against Islamic terrorism. Two of the first soldiers to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay and Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, were granted posthumous citizenship this week. They were Mexican immigrants who volunteered to fight for the country they loved and wanted to serve and protect. They are a rebuttal to those who claim America is wrong about everything or a threat to peace. America is a nation of grateful immigrants and we are the one country that has the will, the resources and the motivation (for freedom) to fight to free other nations from tyranny.

Unfortunately, too many Americans now seem to despise their country and it's ideals. We see it in the communist-sponsored anti-war marches and other protests, in the dopey Hollywood leftist crowd denoucing the war and the president and the world of academa where hard-left Professors like Nick De Genova of Columbia University called for the defeat of the United States in Iraq and the deaths of our young fighting men (and women). They are a minority, to be sure, but they have the minds of our youth in colleges, the megaphone of fame in Hollywood and the liberal media that sees only the negative in the war and avoids the positive both in the war and the nation as a whole.

Politics are getting nastier than ever and the hatred for President Bush that comes from the left is alarming. This good man, fighting terrorism and attempting to foster democracy is vilified not only here but in Europe and often called a terrorist or compared to Adolph Hitler, which makes no sense at all. I beleve the American left is becoming slightly insane as they lose their once-firm grip on information to the internet and media outlets like FOX. The growing voice of the long-silent majority is finally being heard in the land and the liberals and leftists not only don't like it, they don't know how to respond to it. Hence, we see and hear the absurd and often delusional rants from leftists across the media spectrum, crying about America's perceived faults and wishing they were not Americans (Jessica Lange said this as have some other Hollywood leftists). They pretend that the election of George W. Bush was the end of the world and I guess, to a leftist, it was. That darned democracy.

Meanwhile, the majority of Americans support both the war and the president and are not only grateful but proud to be Americans. The naysayers and whiners will always be with us but they can be safety ignored for the most part and of course, in a nation of almost 300 million people, we will never have total agreement on anything, much less politics. Still, the vast majority of us realize that we are living in the greatest nation on earth with freedoms and access to comforts most nations only dream about or if they exist, are reserved for the very few.

I'm proud to be an American and as a unapologic conservative Republican I support the president and the war. I acknowledge other's right to disagree and I debate them on the internet (in other forums) when time permits. Not to convice them of anything (they never change their minds) but to oppose their negative thinking and sometime lies about this nation and it's government.

I close with the reminder that while we may not all agree on every issue, we should all recognize the freedom and opportunity America offers, paid for by the sweat and blood of those who went before us. I appreciate that and I trust most clear-thinking Americans do, too. We are Americans and despite the negative and twisted views some of our citizens insist on holding toward their country, in reality, we need never apologize for America. That is more than simple patriotism, it's the recognition of the truth of the good this country stands for and upholds, despite it's imperfections. Call it patriotism or whatever you wish, I call it simply being a justly proud American.