If "America" is a certain people, I still consider "Americans" my people. I still love and value my people. Patriotism is essentially love for, an loyalty to, one's own folk.
The Third Worlders who live among us are not my people. The government that purports to represent us can make them citizens, but it cannot make them us. They are not "Americans," except by the liberal/neo-con definition, which is a complete corruption.
Forget government! There is nothing pro-American about the thieves who swindle and exploit us. Those in DC (and in our state capitols) who are not outright thugs are at least enablers of the thugs. They sell-out their fellow Americans for the privilege of feeling important and empowered by association with government power. I know many good people who work for government; I don't regard them as The Enemy, but they do work for and prop up The Enemy.
As for how this relates to the NYC (I refuse to use the terms "Ground Zero" or "9-11") Mosque, I feel almost no kinship with NYC. There are a few good people there, a small percentage, but they are strangers in that reeking polyglot. Therefore, I feel little or no emotional connection to the great mosque controversy. Those Muslims should not even be allowed to live within our borders! So, no, if they were not here, it is obvious they could not build yet another mosque. But my reasoning differs from that of the average Faux News groupie in this regard:
1. I do not consider any particular part of NYC "hallowed ground." If you do, fine.
2. I do not accept the neo-con proposition that "Muslim extremists attacked America because they hate us." Not exactly, anyway. Those men who hijacked aircraft and flew them into buildings were wrong for killing innocents, but were rightly upset with the DC-based government that has killed so many of their innocents, and who has for decades bullied them and their nations. Americans have a right to be angered at the crimes that took place on Sept 11, 2001, but some of that anger MUST be directed toward DC's foreign policy, which provoked the blowback.
3. Regarding Middle Eastern affairs, I have no dog in that contest. I am neither anti-Israel, nor pro-Israel. Even if I did favor one side over the other(s), I would not expect my fellow Americans to underwrite my side with their confiscated tax dollars. The whole pissing match between Jews and Muslims should be kept outside America. It is not our pissing match.
The attachment I feel toward America is experienced on cross country drives, on Little League ballfields, at county fairs in certain places, wherever real Americans are found. As other posters indicated, I do nonetheless shake my head at those real Americans who believe The Flag is sacrosanct, who recite The Pledge like zombies, who look at government as legitimate, even authoritative. But they are the victims, not the perps. I hate the perps!Edited by: Deus Vult
