Our country is awesome. After watching America: the Story of Us on the History channel on Sunday (gosh, I'm turning more and more into my dad-Food Network, Travel Channel, next I'll be watching Modern Marvels: Concrete), I am just so into our country. I have always loved America, but this just brought it out even more. I was getting chills! It is a miracle our country is even a country and not a part of England. We were just a bunch of individual ragtag soldiers who went up against the biggest army in the world. We had no right to last a month let alone win the war! I guess it shows you what a little heart and determination will do for you. We knew what we wanted, we fought for a purpose, and we wouldn't quit. The British just got tired and were suffering too many losses for a cause that they forgot the reason of. By starting a country with a just war based on self-reliance, independence, determination, and equality, we engrained these characteristics within the very land of our nation. Even immigrants today who were not born here nor fought for our independence understand what this country is all about. That's why I hate the critics who live here and say how our country is terrible and that the "American dream" is unattainable and that people are worse off coming here. How false! Everyone here does not have a big house with a white picket fence, in fact a large majority do not have these things, but they are living the dream nonetheless. They have education for their children, a just legal system, a government that is not corrupt or completely crazy, and equal rights for all. That's a lot more than they could save from their home countries. Otherwise they wouldn't have bothered to come here. We are not perfect. We have our problems that we are continually trying to solve. But that's the beauty of it: there's room and opportunity for improvement! If we want something fixed, we can vote for it. It may be a slow process but if enough people want it, it will get done. We will always have complaints about our government, and we should because that is how change comes about, but we are truly the best place to be in the world. I don't say this in arrogance or fell that America should push other countries around as we may have done and continue to do, but just to speak up about the viewpoint that is often masked by the cloud of criticism and contempt that hangs over politics and the country as a whole: America is a actually an amazing place. Where else can you find as much diversity? Who else donates as much money to charity? Who else has such a diverse landscape and beautiful geography? No where. We should remember that next time we start to think about how awful our country is or how other countries just have it so much better. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave people! Love it