By Jill Richardson

June 28, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -   As the Fourth of July rolls around, I think plenty of us are eager for barbecues, corn on the cob, watermelon, and fireworks, but our feelings about our country are somewhat more complicated.

How do you love and celebrate a country that’s so obviously flawed? A country that’s currently committing atrocities against innocent children?

Is criticizing America unpatriotic? Some would say it is. I say no.

For me, loving this country means making it better. It means taking a good hard look at our mistakes, learning from the ones in the past, and correcting the ones in the present.

That’s something we don’t do enough. When I teach sociology at the college level, again and again my students say things like, “This isn’t the country I thought I lived in.” Sadly, though, we are that country.

When you examine the full extent of the poverty, inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, and so on in this country, it can feel crushing. We still have a lot of work to do. But there’s a quote from Bill Clinton — himself a deeply imperfect president — that says it all: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.”

When I teach, I balance all of the bad news with the good news. For one thing, much of our history is a story of strong movements pushing us in the right direction.