What America has done (both right and wrong)

   Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as perfection, at least from a religious viewpoint as perfection from a non-religious human perspective can vary depending on the person. The same  goes for nations, it seems some of us have deluded ourselves into thinking that we have only done good, and what evils we committed in the past were trivial. This has happened slowly throughout our nation's history, and no doubt happened in other countries. 

Even though my bias in this subject may be more directed toward the discrediting of American exceptionalism as being just a way for Americans to make themselves feel special, and give them the "right" to edit, and change written history to make America look better as  a whole while discrediting and demonizing other nations throughout history, America is indeed a nation, and just like other nations and people, we have both accomplished a great amount of good, and wrought a great amount of destruction upon ourselves and other countries, therefore I find it appropriate that we take a step back and  realize that among America’s wrongdoings including: enslavement of the Africans, the forceful, and even brutal removal of native Americans from their lands, segregation and an extensive amount of racism against African Americans that extended into the 20^th century, and we can’t forget the horrendous bombings of japan at the tail end of world war 2, we must also recognize the good that America has done. This includes: the efforts to rebuild japan after World war 2, inventing the airplane, having the perseverance and endurance to become our own country, playing the main role in the creation of the internet, the mere fact that we as a country offer freedoms that many, but not all other counties don’t have including: freedom of speech, press, and right to fair trial. See? America while has done great good, isn't quite the ideal batman or superman, but like any superhero, every country has its conflicts. 

In conclusion: it is important to recognize both the good we have done, and the wrong we have done. If we spend too much time on one or the other, or self esteem as a nation will become unbalanced in either direction, and either way, that is not good, as too much national self esteem will make us think we are better than we really are, and can do more than we really can, or we may believe that our nation is worthless, and can't contribute anything noteworthy to either our citizens, our country, or both, it would leave the nation in a hole so to speak, one that would take tremendous teamwork and a mega-sized shovel to get out of.