Ever since I was a little girl patriotism has been a very big part of my life. I remember watching the Fourth of July parade and running down the street with pigtails in my hair, an american flag in one hand, and a fist full of candy in the other. I loved to watch the red, white, and blue flag rip through the air as I ran. I also remember my grandma teaching my cousins and I the words to “America the Beautiful”. Everyone would stand and perform for our moms, dads, uncles, and aunts as my grandma accompanied us on the piano. I remember my mom taking my sister and I shopping for patriotic looking dresses to wear the Sunday before The Fourth of July. Innocently, I believed that America was perfect. I was proud to be an American. As I grew, I realized nothing is perfect. The naive patriotism I had gained started to change when I learned more about the United States past. Politicians have made mistakes from the very beginning: mass genocide of Native Americans, slavery, unequal voting rights for women and African Americans, and wars, just to name a few. These mistakes and flaws, along with others, are enough for any American to question their childhood patriotism. Still, I am proud to be an American. …show more content…
Instead of living in the mistakes we have made, I am learning from the history books read at school. People like Martin Luther King Jr. make me proud to be an American. He saw what America could become and knew what it was destined to become as well. I am proud to be an American because of a woman like Rosa Parks, who made the statement, that all Americans should have the same rights and privileges. I am proud to be an American because of the people all over our country who have recently pulled together and are helping the people affected by Hurricane