A BAD AMERICAN!

My computer has just died, and it will be several weeks before my new one arrives. Until then, I will attempt to keep my posts going using a computer at the nearby public library. As I am limited there to 1 hr, 20 min usage max per time, that means I won't be visiting as many of your sites as often as I did before for a while, and it may be a day or two before you see me respond to your comments here. Thank you for your patience and understanding, my friends. I love you all! :-)
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I have a cousin 13 or 14 years my senior who lives in a very conservative semi-rural town in a fairly red northern state. She land her friends and associates evidently see the world in a far different perspective than I do, as from time to time she forwards me what I consider to be offensive, viral emails she gets from them. Last week, she sent me this latest example, obviously composed by a blowhard redneck, bigot which I am reproducing below. I have copied and pasted the original accompanying photos and artwork too. The email itself with its original text is found in light, unbolded and unitalicized font, like this. The line-by-line replies to his statements which I inserted and sent back to my cousin appear in this bold, italicized font. I think this illustrates perfectly the biggest problem facing this country today: one group, the more primal conservatives, making lots of self-centered, myopic, shallow patriotic bluster, and the other, a more progressive and reasoned group, with a broader and more encompassing viewpoint, which takes into account and deals with what is needed by a far greater range of their fellow citizens. The email came forwarded to me under the title of "fw: you gotta love this guy!" I surely don't though....

This Guy Had The Guts To Put This On The Internet .
Praise God !!!


YES, I'M A BAD AMERICAN.

I am the Liberal-Progressives Worst Nightmare. That's obvious---you're a regressive, self-centered person only out for himself! I am an American. Not MY kind!
I am a Master Mason and believe in God. WHICH God? The loving and merciful one who taught us humility and compassion that I know, or the one of rifles, spite, self-centeredness, and macho vanity that YOU have created?
I ride Harley Davidson Motorcycles and believe in American products. Good. But they're not always the best, nor are they the only products in the world.
I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some Liberal governmental functionary be it Democratic or Republican! Yes, you would, because all you think about is yourself. Jesus did NOT preach self-centeredness.
I'm in touch with my feelings and I like it that way!
I think owning a gun doesn't make you a killer, it makes you a smart American. SMART? Only if you're paranoid or cynical, or live in a very bad neighborhood. I'll remind you: Jesus never carried a gun, spear, or club, and he had enemies wherever he went.
I think being a minority does not make you noble or victimized, and does not entitle you to anything. Get over it! A predictably cruel, ignorant, and insensitive statement to make by one who has obviously never encountered real discrimination of any kind. I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, do it in English. Almost all do. I hope those in other countries make the same sneering demand of you if you are ever forced to migrate to their country and hold a low-paying job there. I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God when and where they want to. One of the few things we agree on. Of course, THIS EVEN APPLIES TO MUSLIMS, PAL!

My heroes are John Wayne, Babe Ruth, Roy Rogers, and Willie G. Davidson that makes the awesome Harley Davidson Motorcycles. Mine are Dr. Jonas Salk (inventor of the polio vaccine who DONATED it to science), Helen Keller (the deaf and blind woman who overcame her disabilities to become a successful author who inspired millions), John Paul II (who forgave his attempted assassin and who helped bring about the fall of communism WITHOUT raising an army or firing a shot), and FDR (whose economic programs created our huge middle class and lifted up millions, keeping them out of or lessening poverty to this very day). My heroes are FAR better than your heroes: none of mine were macho and mouthy, none of them had to fire a gun to get the job done or prove their "manhood", and all put the needs of others before their own wants.
I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor. But Jesus says you SHOULD pity and look after the poor! I know wrestling is fake and I don't waste my time watching or arguing about it.
I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and neither have you!
So, shut up already.

I believe if you don't like the way things are here, go back to where you came from and change your own country! Then maybe YOU should leave THIS country, pal, because the America I know isn't as selfish, hateful, intolerant, or bullying as YOU are! This is AMERICA .We like it the way it is!
If you were born here and don't like it you are free to move to any Socialist country that will have you. F___ you, buster. YOU can move to some far-right, authoritarian military dictatorship where they tolerate no dissent and no diversity. You'd be much happier there than here.
I want to know exactly where the churches are that Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al Sharpton preach, where they get their money, and why they are always part of the problem and never the solution. Why? Are you going to bomb them? As far as problems and solutions go, their identification of injustices and causes of poverty is hardly a problem, but rather a step toward a solution. Your selfish and insensitive rant here has solved none of these problems, and your bellicose attitude only further reinforces them.
Can I get an AMEN on that one? You won't get an amen from me on any of your nonsense!
I also think the cops have the right to pull you over if you're breaking the law, regardless of what color you are.
And, no, I don't mind having my face shown on my drivers license.
I think it's good.... And I'm proud that 'God' is written on my money.

I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation in the world for the next four years.
I dislike those people standing in the intersections trying to sell me stuff or trying to guilt me into making 'donations' to their cause. That's because you're so selfish and hateful. Get a Job and do your part!

I believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes two parents. But it takes a village to have a community, and communities are civilized---an individualistic "I've got mine and to hell with you" attitude is NOT.
I believe 'illegal' is illegal no matter what the lawyers think.
I believe the American flag should be the only one allowed in AMERICA!

If this makes me a BAD American, then yes, I'm a BAD American. You're bad, that's for sure. Mean, too! If you are a BAD American too, please forward this to everyone you know. I wouldn't forward this piece of hateful and ignorant trash if I got paid $1 billion for doing so!
We want our country back! You never HAD the delusional country you describe, so you'll just have to be satisfied with the inclusive and compassionate one you live in today that was here all along!

We NEED GOD BACK IN OUR COUNTRY! PEOPLE LIKE YOU WON'T BE THE ONES PUTTING HIM THERE!

WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! AND THE INTELLIGENT AND THE TOLERANT, PAL!
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I would have expected to see something like this come out of deepest, darkest backwoods Mississippi in the 1950s rather than freshly landing in my email inbox here in 2010. I just can't understand why anybody in their right mind would compose and circulate a spiteful, hateful, and narrow-minded email like this one today. Or why others would enthusiastically and mindlessly send it along to everyone in their address book, saying "Praise God" at its very top! Are these people THAT threatened by, or have their lives been THAT diminished by the presence of immigrants, minorities, and poor around them?. What good purpose does this serve? Does it promote harmony and further a cause beneficial to all? Does it create a spirit of teamwork, or aid job creation or infrastructure renewal we need so greatly right now? Hardly. All it does is allow a boastful, mean, and insecure person (and people evidently just like him) the chance to blow his own horn by belittling others who are not just like him. It is hardly an intelligent, enlightened, or Christian endeavor. The original composer of this is not a good American in the sense that Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, or Martin Luther King, Jr. were: men of great vision respectful of the rights of others and who fought for institutionalizing those rights equally among all men. No, the original composer of this email was obviously a small-minded and fearful man who lacked the vision to see beyond his own self-centered nose. He stoked the fires of bigotry and intolerance with this pathetically pointless effort. He was as shallow-minded and intolerant as any rabid conservative Tea Party activist. He is indeed an undesirable and "bad" American. So are those who blindly follow him, forwarding his trash and agreeing with him.