The great thing about being American is that we are free all year to winge about everything we wish -- and, for the most part, unlike Angloshere cousins, in Australia, Britain or Canada, take gold in it. Indeed, to complain, to seek redress, is deeply ingrained in the American genome -- it’s how we make a less imperfect Union. But there is one day of the year, at least, when Americans should stop complaining and celebrate all that they have. Tomorrow we can and will complain again. But here are my ten favourite things about the United States of America: 1. Its commitment to Liberty (especially its commitment to freedom of speech -- a precondition for all other rights), economic freedom and private property and the amazing benefits its entrepreneurial dynamism it has unleashed for the actual and potential benefit of all. 2. Its embrace of the Common Law -- another great British inheritance -- which creates law from the bottom up, to meet circumstances that evolve, rather than imposing it from the top down. 3. Its people and its commitment to being a melting pot -- to blend and assimilate all cultures that come, into one, unique, American culture. 4. Its language -- Britain may still own English, but America has turbo-charged it, adding other languages (as has been done in the past) to make a quirky idiomatic American version that coins new words seven days a week. 5. Its music -- take your pick: Classical, Jazz, Rock, Country, Folk, Bluegrass, Cajun, R&B, Rockabilly, Motown… all have either been renovated or invented or in America. 6. Its food -- from Cajun to Tex-Mex, to Southern to New American fusion -- like its music, American cuisine has invented or re-invented practically every dish. 7. Its literature -- O’Neill, Eliot, Faulkner, Hemingway. America owned 20th Century novel. And then there’s James, Twain, Updike, Mailer, Stowe, Steinbeck, Lewis, Hawthorne, Capote, Fitzgerald, Emerson, Whitman, Frost, Poe, Thomson, Irving, Vonnegut, Cooper… 8. Its art -- from primitive to modern, from Hudson School to Modern, from Cole and Church to Tarbell to Whistler, Hopper, Rothkoto and Pollock -- and architecture -- from modest 17th C New England saltboxes to the brash NY and Chicago skylines. 9. Its landscape -- it has it all. 10. Baseball. So Happy Birthday, America! #happy4th
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 23:06:18 +0000
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