I'm a little prouder to be an American today

Good luck to our new President.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Wow, 30th disc golf season. And here I am in my 11th. You were much smarter than I was!

Cowboy said:

I hear you, but I am no less proud to be an American today than I was yesterday. I look forward to and wish the best for President Obama and his new administration. Time will tell and I believe that he will lead this country proudly and fairly. Even if he belly flops and it all goes in the toilet. I will have my bag of "choice" discs and have the freedom to travel 800 miles tomorrow and shoot several rounds with my bro I tossed with back in the early 80's.
Another thing I am proud of is that I am 20 days into my 30th season of disc golf. I am a prouder American Disc Golfer having watch your putting tutorial on You Tube. Thank you Mr. Ellis. I am doing my job and "putting plastic to steel".

[Jack Davis]

Roger that!

Still proud to be a member of the society that can make a historic event like this take place!



My_Hero said:

American by birth, Southern by the grace of God. :-)

[johnny betts]

I t's now open season for the Federal Government. Buy your guns and ammo while you still can. Good luck to Obama on his journey to the NWO. God bless us all!

The greatest thing about this election is that ignorance has been defeated on some levels.

[Rob S]

Reply by Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane
"My pride in our great Country is unwaivering...regardless who holds the oval office."

Well said.
I have to admit I did not vote for Mr Obama but, I do respect the office he currently holds and I wish him the best. I will also say that I disagree with some of the things being said in this discussion.

As long as we Americans have the freedom to speak our minds, respect enough for others to listen when they do the same without passing judgement, and the wisdom to choose which is right for ourselves and our families, then I say This IS the greatest country on earth.

[BogieWon]

God Bless America!

[mark ellis]

Before the topic gets closed for discussion by our benevolent webmaster, I offer the following thoughts:

On starting this topic my feeling of national pride was not so much based on a belief that our new President has all the answers to our nation's or the world's problems. I, of course, hope he has some answers and can steer us on a positive course. I would hope that from any elected official, whether I voted for them or not.

The source of my pride and continued surprise is that America elected an Afro-American with a middle eastern sounding name. If you asked me 5 years ago whether that could happen in my lifetime I would have bet heavily against it. I still have a hard time believing it really happened. Setting aside the talents of Barak Obama and whether we agree with his vision or politics, it says a lot about the progress of our society in terms of race and prejudice.

Ok, there was a perfect storm of circumstances which lead to his unlikely election, most importantly the economic collapse just a few weeks before the election. Sure, prejudice and ignorance have not disappeared. Eventually Obama may be judged harshly by history and the fickle electorate may turn on him. Even with all of that, I remain shocked that America elected a black guy with a Muslim name. What next? Next year an 11 year old kid we have never heard of is going to win the World Championships in Pro Open?? (hey, Sammy Ferrens was 16 when he did it, that's a lot different)

There are a lot of distressed and/or disenfranchised Americans who feel a sense of hope from this election. Hope engenders motivation. Hope and motivation are two of the most important qualities a human can have. Motivation leads to success which brings on confidence. Can you imagine the effects of hope, motivation and confidence on a weakened nation? I am not prepared to predict this wide-sweeping effect yet, but I hold out hope. And hope engenders....

Oh, and finally I apologize for bringing a political topic to our otherwise purist pursuit of frisbee.

[get your discs and godiscn]

I'm a WHOLE LOT prouder today

[Disc Player Sports]

Mark,
No reason to apologize.
This country is having a rough time.
And to "Feel Good" about it, is the first step.

[Mongoose]

It's just grade school rhyming. There might have been a biting intent to the words...but really what else would be appropriate to the event that rhymes with "white"? How about "the yellow will be mellow"? I'd be more offended on behalf of Asians for those lines...if I were offended by the rhyme. When you get right down to brass tacks, we're slowly pulling ourselves out of an overtly corrupt government that has been dominated by old white men. I'm mostly white, and I can identify with the man's words to an extent.
That said, I'm happy to see a man like Obama in office because he is a relatively young man who seems to understand the changing ways of the world, and how best to adapt us to this new century (something our past president failed to do) and bring us into the future. His campaign approach proved that much. He knows to use the communication media to its full potential! I'm excited, but I am remaining CAUTIOUSLY optimistic...politicians of any color make me trepidatious. I do dare to hope though.

treenotchin' said:

Wow "when white will embrace whats right" > I am so affended by this statement i am beside myself. How can we let such a racist statement be spoken at the swearing in of our president. You are OK with this??? I am not!!!History lesson 101: MY fore fathers did not own slaves they did live here during slavery and according to our research our great great grandfather was part of the underground railroad. As a young kid one of my fathers best freinds was a black man. He would come to our house and we would go to there so all i have to say is that not all white have had it wrong, some of us had it right even when it was not fashionable to have it right.

Mike said:

Where the black don't have to go to the back, where the brown can stick around, where the red man can get ahead man, where the yellow will stay mellow, and where the white will embrace what's right.....hahaha that was hilarious!

[paul]

Uh -- it's taken from an old civil rights chant and i believe that came from a blues song -- I reference that just to try to lessen the offensiveness of it -- yes it was offensive but really when you don't remove the context can't as a white person you could interpret that doing right is just what you've done? Congratulations on what your great great grandfather did -- do you believe he did it because it was right? Do you believe if he heard the speech he would have taken offense?

[Lyle O. Ross]

Not to put a damper on the pride thing, I personally feel the same thing, but take a listen to Rush Limbaugh's commentary from yesterday. The Daily Show did a piece on Rush and the good guys from Fox News and it's pretty disturbing. Rush's view is basically, I want Obama to fail, period. Kind of sad.

As for myself, I'm proud that we have a thinking, intelligent President. That is because I don't much care about party, race or other issues; no President in this country is every going to reflect my true core values so I have to take what I can get. Morals, a, decent observance of our laws and Constitution, and a reasonable level of honesty count for a lot, and it is good to see those things return to the office.

[Lyle O. Ross]

BTW - Treenotchin' while many, like yourself, have transcended racism, and we do a lot to pretend it doesn't exist in this country, it does - in every possible way one can imagine (please see the stories on nooses that appeared everywhere after Obama got nominated). The comment made addresses that issue right on the head. Yep, it was incorrectly a global statement, but given the flat out denial by the past administration and our current Supreme Court that it still exists, I don't have a real problem with his pointing out that it does, no matter how many innocents he painted with his brush. Last, do you know who he was and where he came from? The battles he fought and lost? One can argue, maybe incorrectly, that his use of that lyric was appropriate, or at least informative, given his history.