This is one of my favorite quotes. Do you agree with this statement?

Question

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
JAMES A. BALDWIN

Baldwin died in 1987, this has nothing to do with Bush.

Answer 1

I particularly admire the response from "Have gun, will travel".

Why didn't he leave the country when Bush won in 2004? Could it be, just maybe, because James Baldwin died seventeen years earlier, on Dec. 1, 1987?

Nah... that's too easy. If he really tried, he would have dug himself up and moved to a cemetery overseas, right?

Have gun, will travel, you might do your homework better before jumping in with your negative answers.

Answer 2

I think I agree with what was meant, and I applaud anyone who speaks out- the more famous the person the better- they can reach more people. But, I would not say criticize, and I would not say America. I would say that every American has not only the right, but the duty, to speak out when our current LEADERS are not playing it straight with the people.
That's where some people are having trouble making the distinction. Kevin M, for instance, calls it whining, and considers it unpatriotic to speak out when the leaders in the GOVERNMENT are being criticized, not America itself. Has he never read the US Constitution? Is it not appropriate for the people to speak out when the president ignores the written wisdom of its words? Who does that make unpatriotic?
This country is great- and the great PEOPLE of this country have spoken. Kevin M is absolutely right when he says back up the criticism with action. Let's see what we can do.

Answer 3

No I don't agree with it. It implies that complaining and whining help.

I would rather see it go something like, "I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to participate and try and make it better."

Criticizing, without suggestions or efforts to improve something, accomplish nothing, except to increase the hostility levels of those being criticized and those doing the criticizing.

Answer 4

The quote means, in my opinion, that it is the right to criticize the country that makes it great. Free speech. In some countries, if you say anything bad about the country or leaders, you could face a firing squad. Please tell me that's not a quote from a Baldwin brother, though.

Answer 5

If we want we can find fault with everything. I can find faulr with James Baldwin because he was an angry man who perpetuated stories against whites but I won't. I like this quote and I regret that I can not give the author credit as the name eludes me at the present. "My country, right or wrong."

Answer 6

To announce that there must be No Criticism of the president,
Or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong,
is not only unpatriotic and servile,
but is morally treasonable to the American public.
— Theodore Roosevelt

Answer 7

If the U.S. were perfect....what fun would that be? Deep down everyone likes to debate and argue. So yes, living in a free country I do agree with this statement.

Answer 8

I agree 100%.

Answer 9

yes i completely agree America isn't perfect, i mean nothing is perfect. and if you really do love America you should criticize it and think of ways to make it better...

Answer 10

disagree, he is a putz who didn't believe his own BS enough to move out of the USA when Bush won in 2004.