"I am an American" Television advertisements -- Vanity

[Partisan Hack]

I'm sure many of you have seen the advertisements featuring many people of different ethnicities who proclaim "I am an American."

While I appreciate the purpose and intent of these advertisements, I do not appreciate the intonation of those giving the message. "I am an American" comes out sounding like a confession, not a proclamation. It's stated with the the same affect and confidence as a quivering alcoholic confessing his addiction to an AA group.

Have you seen this ad? What's your take on it?

[eyebeme]

Whaddya mean wrestlings not real? Just kidding and it is a great song. We just need more people to take real pride in being American. Not African-American, Native-American, Blue-American, or Post-Clinton-Recovering from 8 years of crap-Americans, just AMERICANS.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

Well, I will stick with my characterization of you as "sanctimonious".

It beats me, just why you think that you are telling people (mostly Americans, by the way) on this board that they need to be as deeply understanding and accepting of other people as YOU are. As a general rule, we already KNOW that, and live by that creed.

I am put off by folks who have to say "I have this wonderful BLACK friend", and so on. I think that a lot of other people are, too. I, also, have friends of many ethnicities, but that is not what stands out in my mind about them.

But it appears that you have been literally EVERWHERE, met EVERYONE of importance, and now feel eminently qualified to lecture to the great unwashed masses of inbred rednecks who you think make up much of this country.

That is my honest impression- I am not trying to be sarcastic (for a change).

[Hemlock]

Most of us, but some dumbassed guy a few miles away from my home decided to fight the war at home and shot to death a Sikh business owner.

Do you think a stupid, tax-dollar-supported advertisement would have changed this guy's mind?

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

"Never mind that the the Sikh's are as far from the current conflicts as the Inuits..."

The plural of "INUIT" is "INUIT". No "S". Just thought you would like to know...

[eyebeme]

I believe you are talking about the guy in Phoenix. I have a friend here who is South East Asian and he has had some comments thrown his way.BTW I'm in Phoenix.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

You and I have had some disagreement- but I think that this post is PERFECT!

Wish I had said it!

(I suspect that we would get along tolerably well- if I wind up at another conference down there, I may look you up- just leave the sword at home! I'm not good at all with swords!)

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

This is the last post by me on this subject- you are becoming tiresome.

I have NO IDEA why you have imputed racism and intolerance to a lot of people you have never met, and do not know ANYTHING about. It appears to be pretty much a "straw man" argument to me. It is also pretty silly (and insulting).

The moron who shot that Sikh in Arizona was a common criminal- unfortunately, we still have those in this country (some of them even come here from other countries- but I would never think of mentioning that...)

As to the "INUIT" correction, I was just glad to be able to find at least ONE place you had obviously NOT been!

[boxerblues]

I saw it too. Have to say Im sick of it, they show everything but a white boy there. Call me a bigot if you must but being an American has got nothing to do with race or color its PRIDE. Im second generation Italian but I dont go around with a hyphen in it. When my grandfather came here he denouced his old country and it was his intention become an "American" you know work hard, make money live the life that he thought was best for him. The American Dream now seems to be Im a hyphened whatever but dont you dare put down my old country cause its better than being just an American

[stevem99]

The ad council is not part of the US government. Some idiot earlier in the thread mentioned this and of course people ran with it without checking. It's a private non-profit that makes PSAs. In fact, they started out as a non-profit that did ads during WWII to promote the sales of US bonds. They get their money from corporate donations and many ad agency people do pro bono work with them.

[Darheel]

'It has taken a bunch of isolationist conservatives,etc..,and forced them to realize that they can't rule the world with one philosophy'

That's pretty strong stuff. 'All men are created equal' is a great one-world philosophy. I would challenge you and say that there are no 'isolationist Republicans', if anything there are only 'Balkanizing Democrats' from skin-headed Nazi's to Black Nationalsis and Aztlaners. Realpolitik conservatism consumes sub- and supra-nationalism as the eagle does mice because it examines and deals with the truth. These ads are propaganda, and it's disgusting to watch our national character exploited again and again by Libs who would sell us out in a second to save their own sorry skin.

[Britton J Wingfield]

I liked the ad ok. Sort of reminded me of old Norman Rockwell stuff, cheesy but good.

I like the lack of hyphenated-Americanism.

[Katie_Colic]

I'm not comfortable with who is behind it, but I think maybe they have created something that will backfire on their intent. People are feeling very patriotic and will see the ads in that light.

I think you're right. Just look at how many people here like it because they see it as going BEYOND ethnicity. These people better watch out or race won't be an issue in the 2004 election ;)

[Republic of Texas]

More pc bs.

[Katie_Colic]

I hear ya, I have more black friends than most freepers have ever seen.

Why, how on earth do you know that? I've never felt the need to justify my political views by announcing how many black friends I have, and I imagine a lot of other Freepers feel the same way.

Thanks for the stereotyping!

[Ima Lurker]

Right, I got the same impression you did. Also if the Arab was American, why wasn't he speaking English??

[lavaroise]

While it does convene a single family power balanced force that America should be, I do not think it was aimed that way. I have seen it and it misses the point of this great nation. Our ideal is not human life and diversity (unless we are Nazies obsessed with racial traits of people), our ideal is supposed to be liberty. We should be ready to sacrifice lives in times of war, not cherish them as liberty should be cherished instead.

[lavaroise]

PSYCHO-FREEP: 'It has taken a bunch of isolationist conservatives,etc..,and forced them to realize that they can't rule the world with one philosophy'

So you think we should be slave to a culture or a multi-culture type culture (like the Nazies slaved to xenophobia) instead of making secular concepts and cultures slave of the people? COnservatives have a great ability at dennouncing the slave mentality. You can bet on that. And whoever is against dominance of balance of powers in the world is in fact wishing to rule the world with his own philosophy.

[Aquinasfan]

I think it's a condescending attempt to prevent us from killing a bunch of Muslims. I resent the ad.

I think it was put together by a bunch of "egg-sucking-dog" liberals.

Exactly. While I'm not quite sure what "egg-sucking-dog" means, I'm sure it applies.