Citizenship Test

A sententious and boorish acquaintance of mine revels in trotting out a totally unverifiable, but completely believable statistic that 80% of all people consider themselves to be above average drivers. Of course, you, gentle readers, probably are above average drivers in the same way that you are likely to be above average in everything that is good, perhaps simply by virtue of placing yourself within the sanative halo of my verbal turbulence.

But this question of driving ability is not really the reason behind this post. One year, or 77 posts, ago, I asked What's so Great about America Anyway? and as I'm apt to, failed to really answer that question. I believe against a myriad of problems that still plague us today, I offered only a "delectable chicken salad" as a positive. That really doesn't seem to do our nation justice.

I think what's so great about America is great Americans, but what is a great American anyway? It cannot be the 80% of Americans who likely consider themselves to be above average citizens. They passed no test. They couldn't even name the criteria on which they should be judged. Will unearned jingoistic pride be the last lie to fall? Or will it be love, or religion or one of the other things we justify with a modicum of faith?

I'm being awful, I know. I can't tell you  how awful I feel. Its been observed that I might think just a little too much of myself, but I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. By whatever criteria are being used, I hope to be a better American. I just hope the criteria used is taxes assessed.