But it is lovely, this land of ours, from California to the New York island. Anyway, I am not saying that you _should_ love it: there are no "shoulds" about love, you do or you don't. Do I love it just because I was born here? No, it's rather because I have grown up and lived here, because the people I care about and the places that I'm attached to and the mores and manners that I'm comfortable with, all are here, mainly. I lived in England for a bit, and I'm fond of the tight little isle, but if I moved there I'd be an alien all my life. I'd never be English. I'm American, and that comes with a huge and complex freight, much of it awful, some of it wonderful, all of fraught with possibility. And responsibility. We have an obligation to make it lovely, to realize the great possibilities, to make this a land we can be wholly proud of. I don't think that makes me a flag waving Ameruca Firster, a type I have particular contempt for.
jks
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