Doug has inadvertently brought up the usual whining about how those who dare criticize America must hate it. Last night I was reminded about how important it is to do just that.

The staunchest supporters of America can usually be found in the immigrant population. Last night, I was talking to a man who was an Italian, born in Croatia. During WWII, his mother and siblings hid in a hut in the forest from the German soldiers, who had killed their family dog who protected their home and vineyards and were seizing likely young men for the army. He was a boy of 13, and getting "old enough" to fight, so they fled.

For 6 months, they lived in the forest and listened to the German and American artillery. When the Americans won out, an Army officer found them in the woods and later returned with food and blankets. Right then, he decided he wanted to go to America, to find out what kind of people would be strong enough to defeat the Germans but still cared enough to give the weak food.

It took him 12 years to get a visa. He never intended to stay for more than 4 or 5 years, but he's still here. This is not a man from an oppressive country, or even a poor one; he was fairly well off in Italy. As he talked about how he KNEW that the government would never harm immigrants or take their rights away, and how America *couldn't* have an oppressive government like Mussolini, at first I wondered how he could be so blind to the reality of America.

In WWII we took away the rights of Japanese immigrants, and we're doing that now to Middle Eastern immigrants. But I was reminded that the vision of America in his head -- one defined by an Army officer who brought children canned chicken in a war zone -- is exactly the same vision that most Americans believe in, and the one we want so badly to be true. Even when, from time to time, it isn't.

It's the America we take for granted sometimes. It's also the America we MUST protect, because we deserve it, our children deserve it, and those immigrants who believe in that dream deserve it.

So when I hear statements like, "I think you hate America because you complain," I can't help wonder, "Do you think?"

Do you think America would exist if it weren't for those who stood up and said, no more repressive government? Would America be the country it is today -- both the shining perfect one in our heads and the flawed one that it is in reality -- if not for those who stood up and said, this is wrong, let's fix it. A person's relationship with God will NOT be dictated by our goverment. A person's worth is not determined by their birth or the color of their skin. A person has a right to vote and own property even if they aren't white and male. Would America be the country that so many wish to live in, if not for those times we fought and bled to help those weaker than ourselves?

Those who complain and fuss and act for change are the ones who define America, even if you disagree with those changes. Because the struggle to be a better country is what defines America, not a ficticious perfection that we don't -- and probably never will -- achieve.

When America acts like the oppressor, we must be fully American -- complaining, arguing, disagreeing Americans. Or we'll lose the chance.