What makes you particularly proud to be an American?

July fourth. Independence Day — 242 years ago, an upstart group of pioneers decided they had enough of the British Empire and they wanted to do their own thing.

We all learned this in high school history class, right? The next part of the story usually goes something like this: democracy became the greatest form of government the world had ever seen, and the United States became the greatest country on Earth.

Now go blow some stuff up and check out this mattress sale.

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All that to set up the results of a new Gallup Poll that came out today. For the first time since they started asking the question every year, less than half of Americans surveyed said they “were extremely proud to be an American.” The number now sits at 47 percent.

One of the interesting parts of the survey to me how it breaks down by demographic. “Young adults, college graduates, nonwhites and women — all Democratic-leaning groups — are below the national average in terms of being extremely proud to be Americans. Meanwhile, older adults, those without a college degree, whites and men — who are more Republican-leaning — are above the average.”

So what are we talking about here?

I believe that pride doesn’t actually equal greatness. Pride is a feeling, being great is series of actions.

So while you’re barbecuing with friends and family over the Fourth of July holiday and watching fireworks displays, I invite you to take a minute and think about what kind of America you’d be extremely proud to be a part of. Once you do that, the next part is critical. Now it’s time to put your efforts towards making that America a reality.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can create the greatest country the world has ever known as long as we endeavor to make it so for everyone.

We are all in this grand experiment together, and each of us can help decide how it’s going to evolve. In that way I agree that the United States does have the best system man has ever invented.

Hope you have a great Fourth of July.

You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.

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