I just survived my first serious Freeper internet encounter

[renie408]

and did pretty darn well, I think.

I was posting on another board completely unrelated to politics, when I ran across this:

>>This is the greatest country in the world. We have the best medical care, the best water, food, medicines, homes, acreage, if you want it, you can get it here. You can be modest in your consumption or extravagant. You can be a republican or a democrat or an independent. Worship how and when you want or not at all. You get a free education for your children and if you work hard you can almost achieve any dream that you have. This is the greatest place to live on the earth, bar none. And it must explain why everyone wants to live here. What I will never understand is why people, especially Americans, put it down.<<

So I wrote back:

>>You have to know that isn't technically true. There are other countries with higher life expectancies, better educational standards, who treat their poor better and there are a WHOLE lotta people who have no interest in living here. (I am pretty sure that there are also countries with cleaner water supplies AND cleaner air, but I have to look that up)

So, does the fact that I can recognize that mean that I don't love my country? No more than recognizing that my husband isn't perfect means that I don't love him. He isn't perfect or the BEST in the world at anything,
I imagine. But he is perfect for me and he is the best husband I could imagine. That doesn't mean that I don't think there are things he could work on (me too).

That's how I feel about this country. If we pat ourselves wrongly on the back for having the BEST water supply when we don't...how can we ever MAKE it the best? If we blindly say, "America has the best health care in the world." when maybe it isn't so...how can we improve it? Once you are the BEST, you don't have a whole lot of room for improvement. And acknowledging that there IS room for improvement doesn't mean that you don't love this country. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. I even love my state. I think it is the best state in the country...for me. But I know we have a lot of things that need a lot of work. It isn't a sign that I hate my state. It is a sign that I love it enough to want to make it better. Just like my country. <<


They replied that I was 'disloyal' and 'condescending'. Bizarre, huh? It is 'disloyal' to acknowledge facts.
(BTW...I looked up links for life expectancy, infant mortality and national environmental health and supplied those.)

Oh, and I learned that they have the hots for Fred Thompson. There were maybe ten (?) people there that started talking enthusiastically about Thompson. I didn't touch that.