As I've stated before, a lot of bumper stickers bug me a little. Not so much the funny ones, though I really don't see the point of telling the same joke every day for years on end. The ones I don't get are of the "I support this" or "I believe that" type. There's one I see far more than others, so I'm finally going to rant about it.

I know you've seen it, too. It's the one that says "Proud to be an American".

Now, I can hear some spines stiffening already, but fret not. This has nothing to do with my feelings about America, and everything to do with how I feel about pride.

I see pride as coming in two varieties. The first is deserved pride. This is the pride you earn through your actions. If you do a good job at work, you can take pride in that. If you buy a crappy looking house and fix it up so that it becomes beautiful, you have a right be be proud. If your children are polite and helpful to old ladies crossing the street, you can take pride in the fact that you raised them well. There is no harm in taking some pride in your accomplishments, especially if they took a lot of time and work.

Then there is another pride, which I call vain pride. This is the type that the Bible warns us about, the kind that cometh before a fall. This is pride taken in something that you had nothing to do with. This is the kind expressed in the bumper sticker.

Now, it would be appropriate if someone immigrated here, learned the language and the history, jumped through the hoops, took the test, and became a citizen. They've accomplished something. They aren't the people with the sticker, though. The ones with the sticker are soccer moms in SUVs and rednecks in pickup trucks. They are "proud" because they just happened to be lucky enough to pop out of the womb within the United States. Of course, they don't feel that other people who do that have a right to be proud..... not if their parents weren't citizens. Those people are, of course, a drain on our superior society.

This is a dangerous and egotistical pride. It says "I'm better than people who were born elsewhere- or SHOULD have been born elsewhere". It says, "I deserve to be proud simply because I AM." It's the type of pride that leads one to think that anything their country does is right, simply because it's THEIR country doing it. It's a pride that says " When America says jump, France should say 'How high'". It's a pride that actually had people expecting the Iraqis to shower us with love and thanks for bombing them.

What other accidents of birth are these folks proud of? Are they "Proud to be white"? "Proud to be tall"? "Proud to be non-Jewish"? "Proud to be upper-middle class"? Just how much pride can these folks take in their various natal situations? How much work does it take these folks just to be Americans? 

So there's my problem. It's a cheap, egotistical mindset, held by those that don't feel that pride is something that needs to be earned. It's vain and dangerous. Taking pride in something you lucked into is entirely inappropriate.

So what, you are thinking, would I suggest as being appropriate? Something a bit more humble. How about this-

"Thankful that I'm an American".