A lot has gone on lately that could make an American feel less than stellar about this great land. I want to say that this comment, which exudes the purest and most intense of American spirit- has made me feel so proud to be an American right now.
You don’t have to be from the United States to have American values. Canadians are a people that (in general) love their land, love freedom, care for human rights and understand self sufficiency but also understand that everyone needs help sometimes, and communities are stronger together than apart. While neither Canada or the USA (or anywhere else) always gets that right, and we have our differences in interpretations- Canada is part of the Americas. It’s an American country made up of natives and immigrants from the same places as the United States by and large- perhaps in different measures.
Canada and the USA may have beefs and poke fun- but at the end of the day we are cut from the same cloth, even if it’s sewn and patterned a bit differently. The USA has some big problems with internal division right now- and the world in general has a bit of friction- but a border isn’t all we share with Canada. We are all Americans in the Americas. It shouldn’t just be about getting along with people in our own countries- a US citizen can be proud of a Canadian brother or sister too.
I thought about calling out Mexico and South/Central American countries specifically here- but then I decided that I would keep the focus to US/Canada as being discussed- but left it open to inference by virtue of including all who live in the continental Americas as Americans.
Mainly I didn’t want to go into southern countries, asides from the topic being Canada/USA, because that can get very complex and nuanced and require lots of qualifiers and debates like wether North America/South America/Central America can or should be treated as “one America” or each considered its own region... it gets very complex, and sensitive due to histories and relations between these nations and people’s; and it’s a slippery slope. I think at the very least we could strive for better bonds with Mexico- but then one might jump in and say “why just Mexico? What about...?” And so to keep things relatively short, I just mentioned the US and Canada specifically- but heck- “American Values” aren’t even restricted just to the Americas- and world wide we are all human, so....
the ghost busters!