This from a young American, who likes to think realistically:

America is one of the better countries, though only (very) arguably the best country in the world, but like any other country, America has its own good and bad points. As a high school student, though, I'm still in the thick of where all the worst problems in America are. Here is an excerpt from an essay I am writing for a project I'm working on with some friends of mine:

"When I was your age. . ." I, for one, am sick of hearing that tired old phrase when it's the beginning of another patronising story about the "good old days." It seems that many, if not most, of our parents' generation(s) don't seem to realise that while they were our age once, we are our age--and times have changed. I suppose in some ways we have the same problems as earlier generations, but at the same time there is something fundamentally different about us. Something in our society has changed, making us almost completely separate from earlier generations. Now, as in no other time period in history, a generation of young people has become painfully self-aware. Yes, Virginia, we are people, too--and now we know it. Our parents had the Summer of Love and the pacifist and feminist movements, but we have a greater fight. This time the fight isn't for any single selective group of people, but for an entire generation of people who have just awakened in a century when the world is supposedly better than ever before, but holds nothing but disillusionment for more then a few people. And who exactly is the world better for? Not for us, certainly, and not for the next generation of youths that are coming quickly in our footsteps. The only people who benefit from American prosperity are the wealthy few who can afford the luxury of personal freedom and the many poor whose freedom is paid for by the government. Our parents remain secret middle-class elitists, hidebound to the bone, for all that their generation was one that affected much change and growth in American society. We, our whole generation, may never have such an opportunity to change things. Now, before most of us reach our majority, the older generations seem bent on signing away our rights before we even have the chance to exercise them. "An ye harm none, do as ye will." This is a good motto to live by, but in an age when personal freedom is quickly evaporating, we don't have the right to do as we will.. Freedom of religion exists--if you're a Christian. We still have freedom of speech--as long as we're alone in a soundproof room. Freedom of expression, our most cherished privilege as Americans, is practically non-existent, as something new is censored every day. Our rights are being pissed away by people who simply don't want the responsibility that comes with freedom. Everything we have been taught shows us in explicit detail that the Bill of Rights is a farce and that "democracy" is only an elaborate facade for American fascism. We are taught from birth that Americans have a moral obligation to spread our lifestyle, culture, government, and economy throughout the world; we are taught that economic imperialism, covert fascism, blatant bigotry, and obvious hypocrisy are OKAY. Much of the world despises Americans as fat, greedy and lazy, or as Americans say: "well-fed," "wealthy", and "leisurely." Euphemisms are what keep America running, and are what keep Americans believing in the illusion of social progress. . . (I'm not finished yet, but this is it for now)

Now don't think I'm being un-American or anything--I love America. On the other hand, though, I see a lot of problems that should never exist. I think though, that the only way for me to help in the fight against many of those problems now is to make sure that other people know about them. Spread the word, so to speak. Maybe I'm not a very good American, but at least I have solutions to problems that don't involve losing the Constitutional rights that I hold very dear, as they represent my entire livelihood as an artist and a writer.

Peace--Keli