Pride
I am not proud of my country, the country I was born in, the country I live in. I would like to be. I cannot be. I see what we are doing. I see what we are failing to do. I see what we have done. I cannot be proud. Not even today.
I can be proud of a friend of mine. He is a US soldier. He has been serving in Iraq, and has had his term of service extended several times; for all that those extensions amount to lies that his country told him, that we told him, he continues to serve. He is struggling. His service is damaging him. I can’t stop it. I can’t even do much to mitigate it.
But of him I can be proud, and so I am.