Today is the day proceeding Election Day and there is no time where patriotic sentiment runs higher. A competition arises between presidential candidates as to their national pride. And a great argument is engendered among citizens as to what vote will most benefit the country.

Senator John McCain’s nationalist slogan “Country First” implies invidiously that Senator Barack Obama won’t put the country first–as if Obama’s proposed “Change” will be a strike against the country. Obama claims otherwise, that his “Change” will strengthen the country.

But I’m rather put off by all the pageantry and this contest for Mr. Patriarch of America. I’m tired of listening to these unctuous politicians and their meretricious monologues about “this great country.” How can any man look out earnestly upon this society and be proud?

How could you overlook the fact that over 2.25 million Americans are incarcerated (2006)? How could you overlook the fact that 63% percent of American children do not grow up with both biological parents How could you not realize what this statistic indicates about the of our countries social health? How could you miss the fact that 9.5% U.S. adults–that’s about 18.8 million people, suffer from a depressive illness , where millions and millions more self-medicate themselves with illicit drugs or alcohol? How could you dismiss the fact that over 32,000 Americans commit suicide in a single year , even where many suicides go unreported due the stigma our culture attaches to it?

''...and damn the rest!'' as it would be logically concluded.

Today was Patriot Day. It was the seventh memorial of September 11th when thousands of Americans perished in the World Trade Center attacks. It is a day when teacher’s tell their children to where red white and blue. It is a day when the pledge of allegiance is made a specifically important part of the daily events and is, perhaps, followed by a moment of silence.

It is a day designed to unite American citizens, despite our diversity, in a blind celebration of nationalism. Together we celebrate the terrorist acts that the American government has committed with impunity. We celebrate our privilege as a powerful nation and our ability to force our will upon other sovereign nations. We celebrate our ability to force our corrupt paradigm of government upon other nations so we may have power over them. We celebrate our power to force “liberty” and “freedom” along with our valueless culture and our ailing society upon other nations. We celebrate as we dismantle vibrant and independent societies so they are open to be exploited by the global economy.

And all the while we wonder how anyone in the world could hate us. How could anyone hate us? We are the United States of America! Every other nation envies us. Every other nations just wishes to live up to our greatness!