'Murica

As I awake that morning every year, a sense of anticipation overtakes me.  I put on all the garb I picked out the day before, prepare for the food I’ll be consuming, the sun that is going to turn my skin into a shade like unto an apple for I’ll forget to reapply the sunscreen.  I know I must savor every moment of this day for it is one I enjoy more than Christmas, more than my own birthday.  The 4^th of July.  The time that my patriotism shines through most, when I recall the ideals that made this country great, remembering our founding fathers as well as all the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for us.  My country.  America.  My home.  

I marvel at the circumstances that surrounded the establishment of this country.  The founding fathers created a government that really worked, that was divined by God.  A country that would be full of freedoms, liberty, and justice.  Equality, a melting pot of all the cultures that I’ve come to fall in love with.  It is meant to be a country for all people.  It’s supposed to unite the countries of the world, giving people a place of refuge, a place where they can be who they are and share their culture with us all.  It was created by immigrants and should allow all to partake.

Though I love my country very much because of the foundation on which it stands the principles of freedom, equality, and justice, I know it doesn’t have the same rapport it used to or the same ideals.  Americans, to quote my grandfather,” are too fat, dumb, and happy.”  The American image is one of obese white males who only care about guns and McDonalds, naïve to the issues facing the country and the world.  People on the outside looking at America see these people who are entitled and over proud of a country that has veered so far away from the principles it was founded on that it just makes us look like bigots. 

I wanted to extrapolate the difference between my pride for my country and how differently I see it from how the world sees it.  I took the iconic picture of George Washington crossing the Delaware River because it was a pivotal point in our success in the Revolutionary war and envelops a man that had the right vision for our country.  I was hoping the images I superimposed on the image would be more offensive, but it sort of turned more humorous like the “Untold adventures of George Washington” imgur account.  Yet, it still works to bring the message across with the use of humor.  It was interesting the correlation with my topic and the reading talking about creating an idea into a cult.  Essentially the idea of America could be the greatest cult there is, people dress up in the garb, everyone knows the quotes of the America characters, and they pick apart the original story.