What is America?

So its been a little while and to tell the truth I don't consider myself a writer so its amazing I get on here at all.

Anyway, today I was watching a video posted by the youtube user Randomyoko and she was talking about Japan in World War II and how it was the U.S. that was the aggressor and the sneak attack was not really a sneak attack. Although I thought it was a good review of history and the fact that we knew pearl harbor was coming is for the most part common knowledge these days I found myself conflicted with her broad brushing Japan as a victim.

America to me is not a country its an idea. We did not have thousands of years of history that united a single race and cut clear lines between our enemies, America is what happened when men found that the constraints of a distant king were too abrasive. No one person can be born in this country and be a true patriot, it is a process that has to be learned over time. If we truly understand what made this nation we would understand that it takes effort to gain freedom. No person in this or any other nation is truly free, it takes work and understanding to to truly be free. We may say that America is free but what we really mean is that you have a better chance at freedom here than you do anywhere else on this planet.
I don't know how to put into words the way I feel when I hear people putting so little thought into criticizing America, I understand why you would be critical of Holly Wood, I understand why you would be critical of the wars that have been fought, and I even understand why you would be critical of a people that seem so proud of their ignorance, but when you are able to put words of criticism to those things without considering the founders of this nation and without an ability to see the potential the principals of America bring, I would suggest that you have not done your homework. Or rather if you have done your homework you have done it with an eye that only selects the parts that prove your preconceived agenda.

I don't want to force every person on this planet to love America and I don't even have a problem with people who are ready to look for problems but when you are claiming to know the truth, and you have not spent the time to to make your judgments, you are not doing service to the men who spent their lives trying to improve the world.
Too many people believe that it is only the passage of time and an increase in the understanding of men or in science that have made the world today a more civil place to live, but I believe that it was not just a coincidence that the birth of freedom coincides with the birth of the United States of America.

We need fewer people who are quick to criticize and more people who are ready to help, we need more lovers of freedom and more people who are looking to improve their world. The negativism that has spread across this world is not the material for a brighter future and the people of every nation could use their time better if they looked for the good in other nations rather than feeling better about the themselves by putting down America. I know that this country is a very easy target and at current a very popular target as well, shouldn't that be a clue as to its cheapness? I wish that more people would take a look at what built this nation and the principals that made it the love of foreigners like my my forefathers.

We have problems but we also have a very good foundation, try looking at what ideas built this nation and if you study the men who made those ideas into a nation you too may come to understand why I and other people in every nation love America.