DO I HATE AMERICA?

I recently received a note from one who called himself a True Patriot accusing me of hating America because of uncomplimentary things I said about what is happening in our country today, and my words of praise for our President, who he said was not even American at all. This is my reply.

Do I hate America? No, you hate America. What you love is a provincial fantasy, an image of an 18th Century paradise in which you and your neighbors each live on forty acres in the wilderness with wild apples and a trout stream, you all are the same color (except your field hands), all speak only English, all drive a car made by the corporation you work for, and all know what sacrifice to bring to the altar of the idol you worship at your church, where you pray in your prideful arrogance that the rest will leave “your” America and go back to where they came from, to Africa, Ireland, Italy, Poland, China, Vietnam, Mexico, or other places you don’t even know the names of. I love America, for all its many failings, and in spite of the fact so many millions in the world hate me for my race and nationality because of you. I am reminded that someone in the Bible wisely observed, “He who troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.” Just what part of America do you not consider to be your house, such that you would bring strife that troubleth the nation?