I recently watched Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney. I like occasionally watching films that I've seen and enjoyed before. This time, however, I really empathized with Cagney's character in that old classic.

There is a scene where an actress is asked to be in a George M. Cohan play. She resists and says Cohan's plays are full of "vulgar flag waving."

That is a line that today's "elite" like to spout.

Today we are told that America's response to September 11 is "vulgar." We are told that we should emulate the European nations, nations who seem to have lost any national pride. What no one mentions is that the European nations are like the man who was eulogized this way: "He was a modest man, and he had a lot to be modest about."

Europe has lost any semblance of pride, partly because their accomplishments in the 20th century seem to be limited to having their collective butts pulled out of the wringer by America, not once, but several times.

America is the best nation in the world today. I know we're not supposed to acknowledge this fact. We're supposed to pretend that all nations and all cultures have equal value. That is a load of male bovine waste matter.

A nation or a culture that allows women to be killed because male members of their family (any male relative; brother, husband, uncle, father, or cousin) may BELIEVE, even if that belief is false, that the woman may possibly have done something that might, in some tiny way, compromise the honor of the family is not on a par with the culture that doesn't allow such killings.

A nation or a culture that teaches children to hate their neighbors and tells them that if they die killing their neighbors they go to paradise is not the equal of one that teaches tolerance and forbearance.

A nation or culture that believes that they have to destroy another just because the other is different is not as good as one that allows other countries to "live and let live."

America is a great nation, not a perfect one. We have done things in the past that are shameful, and to our credit we feel shame.

We should cherish and protect our nation and our culture from actions that would debase them. Diversity of cultures is important. Our nation has long been known as a melting pot where people of diverse backgrounds can come together and form our own, unique culture.

The two biggest problems I have with diversity groups, including the one I belong to, is that there is a lot of talk about diversity, but diversity of what is never articulated, and while there is a lot of talk about protecting the feelings of people from other cultures there is very little, if any, talk about protecting our own American culture.

If anything the talk is how people who were born and raised in this area should just change their way of life to accommodate every person from a different culture. There is never any talk of helping the new person adjust themselves to the existing culture, how they might find it easier to be accepted if they change some conduct that local inhabitants might find offensive.

Our culture is often derided by those among us who like to think of themselves as elite but if our culture is no better than any other why is it that we have so many people trying to get in?

Why do people from Mexico face death in the desert rather than stay in their own country? Why do Cubans and Haitians and other people face drowning in their homemade rafts trying to get to America?

Flag waving is vulgar only if you believe that the culture in Rwanda is on a par with the culture here in America. And if you believe that why are you still here?

As my dad used to say: Oar Revoorie