Pitbull Got Patriotism Wrong When He Told Critics to Move to Cuba
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Part of loving one’s country is wanting to redress its wrongs
You’ve seen the news by now. Popular Cuban American rapper Pitbull again went off on people who dared to criticize the United States.
“If you don’t like the United States of America, go back to the countries that we the fuck from, and you’ll see how much you appreciate the United States of America.”
The thing is, when I give my children guidance and constructive criticism as they navigate their teen years, it’s not because I don’t care for them or wish I had different kids. Quite the opposite. I love them so incredibly much that I want them to be the best versions of themselves they can be. That sometimes means letting them make mistakes. That means being there for them when they need me. It’s providing the necessary guidance for their self-improvement. It sometimes means giving them a talking-to so they understand the nature of their errors.
In my home, that’s called deep love.
And I deeply love this young child of a country called America. There’s nothing quite like it in the history of the world. Where innovation, freedom of speech, and the tools to grow are paramount to its heartbeat. Where our founding fathers’ genius, with all of their flaws, gave us a system that has been a beacon of light to people around the world, despite our country’s shortcomings. Where we constantly find ways to evolve.
Pitbull’s right. We aren’t harvesting the organs of Muslims, as many have charged is taking place in China. We aren’t engaging in “honor killings” of girls who have been raped, dare they bring shame on their families, as is all too common in Pakistan. We aren’t performing female circumcisions, i.e., mutilations, as 200 million women have endured in discrete parts of Africa and Indonesia. We aren’t the Taliban, outlawing education for women. We aren’t starving our population like Kim Jong-un’s policies do in North Korea. And we don’t shut down the Internet, jail people for expanding Internet use, or line dissenters up to be killed in firing squads like during Castro’s regime in Cuba.
But who wants the measuring stick of our country’s greatness to be whether we do a better job than China, Iran or Cuba?
