Note: This is not a personal attack against anyone. This is only one man’s opinion. Feel free to disagree.

Last week I was innocuously scrolling through my Twitter and I came across the article. When I saw it was written at USC, I thought, this can’t be good. And it wasn’t. I found the content highly ironic—the author called herself “grateful” to live in this country and proceeded to promptly tear it apart. It was honestly appalling to read; I’m thankful it was one writer’s opinion, however one-sided. I will now proceed to dissect the article, one quote at a time.

“This is why I am not proud to be an American.”

Why would anyone not be proud to be an American? I just spent a week in Nicaragua, and the people there would give an arm and a leg just to spend a nanosecond here. Of course, they would face marginalization in different fashions, but equality is not a perfectly achieved ideal in either the United States or Nicaragua. Also, in the sentence before, “persecution” is mentioned as a tenet of American society. May I remind all of us that we do not repress or persecute anyone; people simply disagreeing or being offended is not tantamount to persecution. Persecution is repressive regimes in North Korea and terrorists in Iraq, not just being yelled at and then given the silent treatment because you’re liberal or conservative, gay or straight, black or white, male or female or even Christian or non-Christian.

“While history books teach children that honorable pilgrims, fleeing religious persecution, founded the thirteen colonies on the statutes of freedom, equality, and acceptance of all, the reality is that this country was brutally robbed from its original inhabitants by white men who saw themselves as ‘better than.’”

“Freedom, equality, and acceptance of all?” Slavery was legal in all of the thirteen colonies prior to the Revolution. The Puritans (aka Pilgrims) of New England banished or imprisoned those who did not think or behave like they did. Maryland, originally a Catholic haven, soon became overrun by Protestants such that it even provided religious freedom, but guaranteed punishment if one was not Christian. Also, I am glad the author touched on the violent repression of natives, a long and brutal conflict that did not end until the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890. However, let it never be said that the Europeans did not have a legitimate reason to think and act the way they did. They were exposed to a seemingly more savage culture, and they wanted to civilize it. Their efforts, for the most part, failed and ended in war. This, I will admit, is among the only points the author got right—we heavily marginalize our natives, especially out West. Nevertheless, the relegation of natives has happened in every single country on the American continent, and even in Africa, Asia, and, to an extent, the Middle East. The natives of these countries definitely, from what I have read, have it worse than those on the reservations.

“Our oh-so-great nation is the reason racism exists today.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. Racism and prejudice have existed for millennia, transcending cultural boundaries. Of all the people in this world that I have ever met, read about or heard of, they all have one thing on common: they are hardwired with some sort of xenophobia, and that is what makes the proverbial world go round.

“Slavery exists today, too -- yet it has taken on new shapes and forms.”

While many people in this country have sex rings and other forms of slavery, not everyone supports it. In fact, most people don’t support illegal activities in this country. It’s just an axiom of life in a developed country with near-ubiquitous law enforcement.

“Although the rise of social media has perpetuated these images, our country has consistently treated non-whites with brutality and injustice.”

First of all, “these images” have been around since Columbus’ day, and they have been perpetuated on both sides of the Atlantic ever since. And while our country has consistently treated minorities with brutality and injustice, others have been doing the same for years and continue to do the same. Consider South Africa, a nation of repression, first during apartheid, and then, after the peace brought on by Mandela, against white individuals as a means of revenge. Think of Saudi Arabia’s discrimination against non-Muslims, who are forbidden to so much as casually enter the country unless they are dignitaries. There are many other countries, of course, like this; America is not alone in being racist, but there are countries where racism is far worse and farther reaching than in America.

“While we love to say that every war has been fought in the name of democracy, it is clear that all motivations come from greed.”

Until World War I, they did. The War to End All Wars was a different war for us because, rather than simply advancing greedy, moneyed interests like we had in every military action prior, we actually decided to be, as John Winthrop once put it, “a citty [sic] upon a hill”, showing off how great democracy was to the rest of the world. Since then, we have World War II, Korea, Vietnam, both Iraq Wars, the War in Afghanistan, the intervention against ISIL, and, if affairs continue on the current path, Syria and possibly Russia—each one fought to try to encourage democracy in the world. While capitalist interests do benefit from wars, they are not the reason we fight them. We fight for freedom around the world, and sometimes it works flawlessly, and other times, it fails humiliatingly. Such is the nature of the beast.

“The leaders of this nation motivate our soldiers by worshipping their heroism and bravery, telling them tales of the evils abroad because they cannot admit that they are sending our loved ones to fight a war for America's own selfish capitalistic ventures.”

The reason we revere our veterans is just that—legitimate heroism and bravery. “The evils abroad” are exactly what we fight against—ISIL being the prime example. Personally, I see no way an American can hear of the atrocities in Iraq and Syria and not want to help end their iron grip over that already-ruined region. Of course, lest we forget—capitalism is the economic system of democracy, and selfish though it may be, socialism and communism are even worse, because the government takes a large chunk of the money supply for themselves, controlling practically everything, and the poor, hard-working individuals therein people don’t get to reap the same benefits they do if their country were capitalist, or, at the absolute least, Keynesian.

“Our nation sees a misogynistic, sexist man who preaches about groping women as fit to lead this nation.”

Explain just how a “misogynistic, sexist man” manages to put women in important cabinet and cabinet-level positions. Also, about 14 women came forward and said they had been mishandled in some way by Trump; 100 percent of their stories were false.

“Women are told that they are unqualified or unfit for a job when, in fact, they have the same competence as the man who gets hired.”

Just where does this happen? Of course, I’ve heard this before many times in the past, but there are plenty of tangible examples or progress in this regard. My father wields some powerful leadership positions at my school and hires women all the time, in near-equal proportion (and with near-equal pay) to their male counterparts. My mother and my father each make similar income, and they work for the same employer. Moreover, women are becoming more powerful than they were 50 and even 25 years ago; GM, IBM, PepsiCo and Yahoo, just to name a few, are headed by female CEOs, with more possibly to come.

“Many love to compare us to other nations of the world, but this is not the point; America claims to be a country of fairness and equality yet there remains disparities across different groups, and gender is just one of the many.”

Okay, maybe we are a little hypocritical, but the fact still remains that we are improving, and acting like how America was in the past is how we will always will be is extremely short-sighted.

“The propaganda spewed by this nation of so-called acceptance has instilled fear of innocent, honest human beings simply practicing their religion.”

And for good reason. It is very difficult to distinguish between those “simply practicing their religion” and those using it against our country. We are a nation of freedom, but that does not mean we have our doors swung wide to everyone because, in this era, we have a massive target on our backs as the world’s only superpower, and we would like to keep it that way while ensuring that the bullseye on said target shrinks ever smaller (in other words, diminishing terrorism). Moreover, terrorists are innocuous—stories of perpetrators of terrorist attacks in America describe friends thinking that they would not harm a fly; the next thing they know, their friend is in jail or dead. We have to err on the side of caution, because one never knows if or when the actions of lone wolves will precipitate our downfall.

“Terrorism is defined as "the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.’”

If only it were that simple. Just ask my dad—he worked for the DoD for three years following September 11 as a statistician. He knows, to an extent, how hard it is to find and stop terrorists and fugitives. It is very hard, to say the least.

“Religious freedom is a founding principle of this nation, yet if one does not abide by a Christian god, then they are on the wrong side of morality.”

I and many of my friends are Christians across almost every denomination imaginable, yet we respect, love, and pray for Muslims, Jews, atheists—anyone and everyone we can. We want to see the love of God in their life, and that just cannot be done if we constantly tell them “they are on the wrong side of morality.” We know we are flawed as Christians, but we pray that, with God’s perfection shining in us, that we will be the ambassadors of Heaven on Earth.

“However, I will not blindly admire a nation that prospers and survives off of the subjugation, destruction, torture and discrimination of others.”

While some of our citizens find pleasure in doing so, as a people and as a government, we do not make our goal to subjugate, destroy, torture and discriminate anyone. Yes, it happens because we are human, and we have the disease of xenophobia. Differences scare us, and sometimes, they get the better of us, but it happens to everybody, in America and abroad.

“I am not proud to be an American.”

Why would anyone not be? What more could anyone ask for? This is why I get up in the morning. It is why I am the person that I am today. It will always be a part of me, no matter where I live. This is the real America.