Pride Starts at Home

You ever heard the saying, "It starts with you?"

Well… sometimes that's exactly where we need to start looking.

I've seen people from other countries visit America and leave talking about how beautiful it is, how kind people were, and how grateful they were for the opportunities they found here. Meanwhile, some Americans spend every day tearing down the very country they call home. Make that make sense.

Nobody is saying America has a perfect history. It doesn't. No country does. But if you can look at where we started and where we are today and not see the progress made by people of every race, culture, and background, maybe you're so focused on the cracks that you've forgotten to appreciate the foundation.

You can't complain about division while adding to it. You can't demand kindness while choosing bitterness. You can't say you want a better America while rooting for it to fail just so you can be proven right.

At some point, constantly pointing out what's wrong without ever acknowledging what's right doesn't make you part of the solution. It just makes you another voice adding to the noise.

People notice. They notice what you celebrate. They notice what you share. They notice whether your words leave people with hope or just one more reason to be angry.

Right now there are people running across America carrying the flag, celebrating this country, its people, and how far we've come. At the very same time, there are people sitting behind a screen convinced there's nothing worth celebrating. Maybe that's worth thinking about. Because change really does start with each of us.

If all we're doing is criticizing without contributing, we're not helping the country heal. We're becoming the cavity that's slowly eating away at it. And cavities don't fix themselves.