Exposed to Some New Truths

Is it ok to be ashamed to be an American? The last two pieces of media that I have gone through have persuaded me that the previous statement can exist.
First: The Poisonwood Bible. I finished it today and left myself some time to ponder some of the meaning Kingsolver is getting across. I feel, that as a country, we are terrible people. To mislead, permenantly scar, harm, and undermine the people of another country, is unthinkable. That may be why we don't choose to think about it. Kingsolver has been successful in opening my eyes to an unseen part of our political world, and I don't like it. I feel that even though I wasn't a direct part of it, I am to blame as a citizen of our country. I guess the guilt of a country can trickle down through the generations.
Second: Waiting for Superman. I just watched this documentary with my sister (who's studying elementary education) and my mom (who's a fourth grade teacher) and I had no idea what I was about to learn. In the same way that PWB makes me feel guilty, this achieves that very thing. To prevent children who are ready to learn and want to learn and who's families are 100% behind them, a quality education seems like such a selfish thing for our country to do. As multiple people in this movie stated, education has become a game for adults and it should be about the better interest of the children. I'm not one who's ever wanted to be a teacher, but this movie made me want to do something to change what our country has 'accomplished'. And it's quite appropriate for the topic of our senior projects and it touches on multiple issues, so I definitly recommend it to everyone.