"Hope's Wife"

From The Ryskind Sketchbook

I was inclined to dismiss this as a thoughtless remark until I realized it was written into a speech she delivered twice. I heard Laura Ingraham say she doesn't really think Michelle Obama's never been proud of her country before. I wonder. I remember as a kid being told by a black playmate on July 4th that her mom had instructed her they wouldn't celebrate because "it's not our Independence Day." I told my friend (nicely) it was too, because without American Independence and American political principles, there'd have been no Emancipation, and there was no country on earth where blacks were treated better or had more opportunity. After lunch she told me her mom said I should mind my own business and we went back to playing jacks or whatever. I think we were about 9 years old.

Given the rape- of- the -Indian/slavery & Jim Crow-centric view of history we teach in our schools, it's more surprising to find people who are proud of the country, I think.