americans - pony up about your state...

[Mike70]

what i am getting at is do you consider yourself a citizen of your state first and foremost or do you consider yourself an american first and foremost.

for me this answer is simple - ohio is my country. ohio comes first to me. america qualifies as sort of an idea to me that on most days i don't care for too much.

[axlish]

I try my best to consider myself a human being who happens to be on the planet Earth but if it is between state and country, I choose country.

[Mike70]

I try my best to consider myself a human being who happens to be on the planet Earth but if it is between state and country, I choose country.


i most likely feel the way i do because i am a transplanted southerner. my entire family is from tenn. most southerns are intensely loyal to their state and that is something that i just kinda picked up.

i do agree with you about the planet though. that is what is really important.

like the roman playwright terence wrote: homo sum. nihil mihi humanus alienus est. i am a human. nothing human is foreign to me.

[Adrenochrome]

i most likely feel the way i do because i am a transplanted southerner. my entire family is from tenn. most southerns are intensely loyal to their state and that is something that i just kinda picked up.

i do agree with you about the planet though. that is what is really important.

like the roman playwright terence wrote: homo sum. nihil mihi humanus alienus est. i am a human. nothing human is foreign to me.
I'm also a Tennessean. Originally from Memphis. I loathe that city and will never return. It's all about Hate and Race.
I now live outside of Kansas City (kind of in the boonies) on a very nice lake.

Now, about the thread topic....

I am a Human from Earth first, just as two of you have stated.
Second, I will choose "country", but, only "my fellow Americans", NOT the American Government (if that makes sense). Those idiots dig themselves in, they can crawl their way out.

[zombie04]

For me it's kind of hard to explain. I consider myself an American first and a North Carolinian second although I think state does come first in some cases. I guess it's just because I've been to most states in the country I consider myself an American first because I just love the entire country(except parts of New England and California) and I love the state I'm in. Plus I wasn't born in my state so I don't feel there's definite connection. Either way I love North Carolina and I love America...even the government though I do take exception to a few things that happen.

[axlish]

I'm also a Tennessean. Originally from Memphis. I loathe that city and will never return. It's all about Hate and Race.

I agree. I visited Memphis once and thought it stank to high heaven. The downtown area is downright creepy, with half of the skyscrapers uninhabited. Plenty of bums asking for change as well.

The coolest part was of course Graceland, and that little island park next to the bridge to Arkansas. It is weird, I watched The Firm about a year after I visited there and I was ticked because I had visited several of the locations from the film without even realizing it.

[MapMan]

Tennessee for me folks. I have lived all over the world and always missed my true home. I have been to many mountain ranges but none of them stack up to the Appalachian mountains 10 minutes from me in any direction . I live in a sportsman's paradise.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Well since I have moved quite a bit in the last 10 years I just consider myself a citizen of the USA. I have been through NY, PA, and now MD since 1996.

[HLS]

I am not sure how to answer that. I am an American but I tend to not think of myself as one for the majority of my family are citizens of Germany but as far as states are concerned even though I lived in Kansas for almost 18 years I still see myself as loyal to Pennsylvania for I spent most of my childhood there. Also I traveled to 35 of the 50 states.
Sadly I am the only member of my family that has never left the United States. MY mother, brother, sister are from Germany. My mom lived in Germany, USA, Morocco. My dad is American and from Pittsburgh but his parents are from Germany. My father lived also in Ethiopia, Libia and Saudi Arabia when he was young.

[Adrenochrome]

I am not sure how to answer that. I am an American but I tend to not think of myself as one for the majority of my family are citizens of Germany but as far as states are concerned even though I lived in Kansas for almost 18 years I still see myself as loyal to Pennsylvania for I spent most of my childhood there. Also I traveled to 35 of the 50 states.
Sadly I am the only member of my family that has never left the United States. MY mother, brother, sister are from Germany. My mom lived in Germany, USA, Morocco. My dad is American and from Pittsburgh but his parents are from Germany. My father lived also in Ethiopia, Libia and Saudi Arabia when he was young.
huh?:confused:

[ipotts85]

us, first and foremost. i am intensely nationalistic, even though i am as equally instensly critical as well. but i think any true citizen that loves their country is that way...

[general tbag]

what i am getting at is do you consider yourself a citizen of your state first and foremost or do you consider yourself an american first and foremost.

for me this answer is simple - ohio is my country. ohio comes first to me. america qualifies as sort of an idea to me that on most days i don't care for too much.

for sure i am a canadian before an american myself. lived back and forth for the last 10 years. back in america, grew up in canada.

im in nebraska right now, but i hate nebraska, to many conservative bible thumpin ideals throw in with a bit of hippocracy. not a good mix. also where i am seems a bit fanatical in that reguards.

[tju1973]

I am from Texas, but I am an American. If the US split-- either from a new civil war or if a state seceded, I would take uparms in defense of the Republic-- so to speak.

Being from a for Confederate state, I hate the whole racist attitude of some here (well everywhere) and actually count Lincoln one of my few "heros"-- the others being Judas Iscariot, Wilhelm Canaris, and John McCain.

Abe cared not so much for the slavery issue, but his conviction that the US must be ONE nation to survive--- and lead it into a almost fatal war, shows courage and foresight beyond what most of his day felt.

In a sense, he was prepared to destroy America to save it.

And we are all better for it.


huh?:confused:

I second that my friend...


:rockbrow:

[AcesandEights]

Yeah, proud human, proud earthling and proud U.S. citizen--in that order.

To be honest, but not to be insulting, I've always found people getting too hung up on their state of birth to be a bit backwards. I mean, don't get me wrong, when I feel the 'gubment' isn't holding up it's end of the social contract and abusing power to such an extent that peaceful reform isn't possible...well, that's when it's time to consider alternate action AND i do agree that states rights do have their place, but really, who has the time to get hung up on one more ****ant artificial, social construct?

[Exatreides]

Well I'm American
and from Indiana, although I claim no relation to the state, its kind of like that sibling that you go "Well he's my brother but I don't like to talk about it." sorta thing
But I'm a Jew and a strong Zionest, and I have considered joining the IDF when I'm done with school.

[livingdead7]

for sure i am a canadian before an american myself. lived back and forth for the last 10 years. back in america, grew up in canada.

im in nebraska right now, but i hate nebraska, to many conservative bible thumpin ideals throw in with a bit of hippocracy. not a good mix. also where i am seems a bit fanatical in that reguards.

You should come closer to Omaha then. Nothing but a bunch of loud mouth radical minded liberals, that like most..cant think for themselves...

[Arcades057]

America first. Without America there is no Florida, no Michigan, no NY.

Saying that, the Fed does seem to have its head up its ass most of the time.

[livingdead7]

I'm from Ohio...and a hardcore college football fan...therefore..State come first. There are just too mant lowlife assholes in this country for me to put it first.

[Tri0xin]

Missourians have more pride than Texans, probably. We have a lot to be proud of (and some we're not so proud of). Mark Twain, the greatest American freethinker since the founding fathers; Jesse James, famous baptist preacher's son and confederate Missouri partisan turned outlaw; William Quantrell & Bloody Bill Anderson, the two most notorious Missouri rebels. They orchestrated the biggest american vs. american massacre in American history when they led a band of Missouri partisans into Lawrence, KS and burned the mother****er down. And of course, there's Harry S Truman, the most controversial Missourian of all time, except maybe for John Ashcroft.

Missouri is the only state to ever enter the union under its own terms (see the Missouri compromise), and was the only slave state north of the Mason-Dixon line, at the time of the civil war. Missouri was also third in civil war battles, following Virginia and Tennessee, and fifth in casualities (mostly Missouri partisan rebels. Most of the union casualities were federal occupying troops sent from nearby Iowa, Illinois and Kansas).

Missouri was also home to Ulysses S. Grant at one time, who retired in St. Louis. Missouri is also home to famous American world war I general, General black jack Pershing.

As if that information wasn't enough, Clint Eastwood also particularly likes playing Missouri rebels in his movies. In Outlaw Josey Wales, he was a Missouri rebel from Lafayette County who embarks on a journey of revenge to find the "redlegger" (Missouri slang for the 1st Illinois and 3rd Kansas federal infantry troops, who were notorious for raping and killing southern sympathizers and burning down their farms, and made famous by the red stripe down their pants) and he also played William Munny, out of Missouri, killer of women and children in Unforgiven.

All in all, Missouri is a state of a bloodied and colorful past and when it comes down to it, I'm a Missourian first, American second, a human being probably fourth or fifth down the line. :)

[EvilNed]

When I'm living in Sweden, I'm the exotic american.

When I'm living in America, I'm the exotic swede.

Citizen of both, mind you.

[Mike70]

Well I'm American
and from Indiana, although I claim no relation to the state, its kind of like that sibling that you go "Well he's my brother but I don't like to talk about it." sorta thing

indiana - all i can say is i'm sorry.

i totally figured that the overwhelming response would be for your home state. but it has been far from it. after reading all the responses so far, i gather that a few of you have moved around a bit and aren't really attached to any particular place. some of you simply feel that america is what is important.

glad i am not a betting person cause i would've crapped out on this one.

thanks to all who replied- this has been most illuminating.

[p2501]

of late its in this order.

state,
then planet,
then country.

[Zombie-A-GoGo]

I've moved around too much to feel a preference for any particular state. I don't think it would matter anyway, as I don't really hold any sort of alligence to concepts. As in, what is supposed to be "American"...I don't know about you, but as I grew up, I would never have imagined that the US would condone the use of torture. Or spy on its own citizens. Even as an adult, these things disturb me to no end. This is the country I was taught had so much goodness and was supposed to the hero of the world? What it's proven to me, and what I've suspected all along, is that there are no traits that are inherently "American"--at least, none that no other country could easily also claim as their own to boost nationalism. All countries are made up of human beings, as are their governments. And, frankly, I haven't been too thrilled with the human beings that have made up my governement and my country as of late.

Greg Graffin once sang sarcastically: "I don't need to be a global citizen, 'cause I'm blessed by nationality." I join him in his sarcasm. We're all huamn beings and the more people understand that, and the less rabid nationalism that we have, the better off the world would be.

[zombie04]

America first. Without America there is no Florida, no Michigan, no NY.



You could also say without Flordia, Michigan, NY or the 47 others, there would be not United States. It's kind of a chicken/egg thing.

[p2501]

You could also say without Flordia, Michigan, NY or the 47 others, there would be not United States. It's kind of a chicken/egg thing.

perfectly summated.;)