Many thanks to Brian Krassenstein! “The weirdest thing about leaving America is realizing how much of America is just a sales pitch. You spend your whole life hearing “greatest country on Earth,” then you go overseas and see clean trains, safer streets, affordable medicine, cities where people can walk without playing Frogger with an SUV, and workers who take vacations without acting like they committed treason. And then you come home. You come home to potholes, medical debt, school shooting drills, $17 airport sandwiches, people living in tents under highways, politicians wearing flag pins (or worse, gun pins) while doing absolutely nothing for the people standing in food bank lines, and billionaires being treated like they’re the fragile ones. And somehow we’re all supposed to stand there, hand over heart, and pretend this is normal. I don’t hate America. I hate what America has been taught to tolerate. I hate that we call basic things “radical.” Healthcare? Radical. Paid leave? Radical. Clean air? Radical. Kids not getting shot in math class? Somehow political. Meanwhile, the loudest “patriots” are usually the same people telling struggling Americans to shut up, stop complaining, and be grateful. Grateful for what? A flag doesn’t pay rent. A bald eagle doesn’t cover insulin. Fireworks don’t fix bridges. And chanting “USA” doesn’t make a broken system less broken. America has incredible people. That’s the tragedy. The people are better than the system they’ve been forced to defend. So no, I’m not going to call America the greatest country on Earth just because it has the best marketing department. Real patriotism isn’t pretending the country is perfect. Real patriotism is being angry that it isn’t” - Brian Krassenstein