September 11.  Instead of showing what you will see everywhere else – a reminder of the attacks in video form (though some want to believe this was an “inside job”), I’m posting an article I saved from about a year ago.  Greg Walker is (was) a Rutgers College sophomore and full credit for this goes to him.  I initially found it at DailyTargum.com but am not able to locate it within the archives.  I did save the text because it was terrific.  If anyone knows where the original is, let me know so I can link to it instead of re-scribin’.

Below is the “America is Awesome” article in total:

Nowadays it seems that hating America has become trendy – in Hollywood, in elitist circles and on campus. Patriotism is for saps. Well, I’m going to take this opportunity to be a sap, and engage in what could be considered an act of sedition on this and many similar campuses. I’m going to talk about how great the United States of America is.

First and foremost, let’s dispel these rumors about us being a massive human-rights violator, so that we can move on from that lunacy.

We’ve never had a single concentration camp operate under American soil. Japanese internment locales, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib may not be your idea of a summer resort, but they have never been concentration camps, to say nothing of death camps.

You cannot place blame on the U.S. government, especially recently, for killing millions of people, let alone 50 million (USSR) or 70 million people (China). We’ve never had an inquisition – certainly not one with deaths, nor have we ever wiped out a third of our own population (Cambodia) or knowingly and maliciously tested nuclear weapons near whole villages (USSR, again).

If women in the United States go outside unattended by a male, they won’t be stoned (pre-liberation Afghanistan) or locked in a burning building for not wearing head coverings (Saudi Arabia). In women’s rights, we’re better than just about the entire Muslim world, from Morocco to Indonesia – politically incorrect, but you know it’s true.

Homosexuals can live and work openly in this country, with legal protection against discrimination, unlike in Singapore, where homosexuals are not even legally allowed to reside.

No one forces you to go to church here, or pray or believe in God. We are not a theocracy (Iran); And no, having the occasional moment of silence or posting a copy of the Ten Commandments here or there are not signs of a theocracy. In Germany, it is illegal to be a member of the Nazi party – whether you like it or not, here the Nazis are free to exercise their First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

When little Israel was invaded three times by at least four countries, who was the only nation to come to her aid every time? The United States of America.

Our police force is one of the finest in the world. American police are, for the most part, hardworking men and women dedicated to upholding the law. In Russia, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Georgia – to name three of many countries – my relatives and I have seen firsthand how being a police officer is carte blanche to get away with violating all traffic laws, accepting bribes, coercion and even rape and murder.

Under the Marshall Plan, the United States bailed Western Europe out of the annihilation that greeted them after Adolph Hitler’s defeat, simultaneously preventing them from falling prey to the alluring sirens of Soviet totalitarianism. France, Italy, Germany, the Czech and Slovak Republics and Austria owe their free existences to U.S. aid. And when the war was over, we never shot our returning prisoners of war (USSR and others, surprise).

A quick word on our health care system: It may not be the ideal, but we don’t have to wait for years to get necessary surgery (Israel, Canada), and 10,000 of America’s elderly have not died in recent memory due to a heat wave for which we were grossly unprepared (France in 2002).

With all of these bad things that America isn’t, how about the good things that we are and that we do?

For lack of space, I won’t go into charity or foreign aid, of which America pays a huge share.

Every single American citizen can vote, and you never have to tell for whom.

One great, great thing is you can say whatever the hell you want in America. Watch this: I DISAGREE WITH PRESIDENT BUSH’S IMMIGRATION POLICY, AND THINK THAT IT’S DETRIMENTAL TO AMERICAN NATIONAL SECURITY.

You know what’s going to happen to me right now? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. No one from the government will ask to speak with me “in private.” There will be no late-night knock on my door. I will not be kicked out of my political party (Republican). I will not be fired from my job or have my pay lowered or be kicked out of school. Hell, I’m pretty sure I’ll even be published again. Starting to get the picture?

In America, you can be anything if you have innovative ideas or are willing to work hard. Here, two indentured servants and at least one son of a violent drunk grew up to become president. A poor black girl from Alabama (Condoleezza Rice) or the child of Jamaican immigrants (Colin Powell) or a Jewish girl whose family fled the Nazis (Madeleine Albright) can grow up to be American secretaries of state. The son of impoverished Mexican immigrants (Alberto Gonzales) can become attorney general.

To top it all off, you don’t even have to serve in the American military anymore unless you choose to.

Love of this nation should never be limited to conservatives. Just because you love America, this blessed land that has provided your family at some point with refuge from the world, does not make you a fascist or a fool.

America is truly awesome, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.