Former Rock County Star Herald Editor Al McIntosh penned his “Tired American” commentary in 1965 at the height of the Vietnam controversy.
The piece, which has been reprinted in hundreds of publications worldwide, is still requested today.
While the current Star Herald editorial team isn’t necessarily in complete agreement with some of its assertions, the piece is as timely today as it was more than 40 years ago.
We share it this week in honor of our nation’s Independence Day holiday.
I am a “tired American.”
I’m tired of being called the “Ugly American.”
I’m tired of having the world panhandlers use my country as a whipping boy 365 days a year.
I am a “tired American” — weary of having American embassies and information centers stoned, burned and sacked by mobs operating under orders from dictators who preach “peace” and breed conflict.
I am a “tired American” — weary of being lectured by General DeGaulle (who never won a battle) who poses as a second Jehovah in righteousness and wisdom.
I am a “tired American” … weary of Nasser and all the other blood sucking leeches who bleed Uncle Sam white and who kick him on the shins and yank his beard if the cash flow falters.
I am a “tired American” … choked up to here on this business of trying to intimidate our government by placard, picket line and sit-in by the hordes of the dirty unwashed who rush to man the barricades against the forces of law, order and decency.
I am a “tired American” … weary of the beatniks who say they should have the right to determine what laws of the land they are willing to obey.
I am a “tired American” … fed up with the mobs of scabby faced, long-haired youths and short-haired girls who claim they represent the “new wave” of American and who sneer at the old fashioned virtues of honesty, integrity, morality on which America grew to greatness.
I am a “tired American” … weary unto death of having my tax dollars got to dictators who play both sides against the middle with threats of what will happen if we cut off the golden stream of dollars.
I am a “tired American” … nauseated by the lazy do nothings who wouldn’t take a job if you drove them to and from work in a Rolls Royce.
I am a “tired American” who is tired of supporting families who haven’t known any other source of income other than government relief checks for three generations.
I am a “tired American” who is getting madder by the minute at the filth peddlers who have launched America in an obscenity race … who try to foist on us the belief that filth is an integral part of culture … in the arts, the movies, “literature,” the stage and the mobs who see Lenny Bruce as “brightly amusing” and Norman Mailer as “compelling.”
I’m tired of these “artists” who scavenge in the cess pools for inspiration and who refuse to look up at the stars.
I am a “tired American” … weary of the bearded bums who tramp the picket lines … and the sit-ins … who prefer Chinese communism to capitalism … who see no evil in Castro but sneer at President Johnson as a “threat to peace.”
I am a “tired American” who has lost all patience with that civil rights group which is showing propaganda movies on college campuses from coast to coast. Movies denouncing the United States. Movies made in Communist China.
I am a “tired American” who is angered by the self righteous “breast beater” critics of America, at home and abroad, who set impossible yardsticks for the United States but never apply the same standards to the French, the British, the Russians, the Chinese.
I am a “tired American” who represents the pimply faced beatniks who try to represent Americans as the “bad guys on the black horses.”
I am a “tired American” who is weary of some Negro leaders who, for shock purposes, scream four letter words in church meetings.
I am a “tired American” — sickened by the slack jawed bigots who wrap themselves in bedsheets in the dead of night and roam the countryside looking for innocent victims.
I am a “tired American” who dislikes clergymen who have had a career out of integration causes yet send their grown children to private schools.
I am a “tired American” who resents those who try to peddle the belief in schools and colleges that capitalism is a dirty word and that free enterprise and private initiative are only synonyms for greed.
They say they hate capitalism but they are always right at the head of the line demanding their share of the American way of life.
I am a “tired American” who gets more than a little bit weary of the claque in our State Department who choose to regard policy of timidity as prudent … the same group who subscribe to a “no win” policy in Vietnam.
I am a “tired American” … real tired of those who are trying to sell me the belief that America is not the greatest nation in all the world … a generous hearted nation … a nation dedicated to the policy of trying to help the “have nots” achieve some of the good things that our system of free enterprise brought about.
I am an American who gets a lump in his throat when he hears the “Star Spangled Banner” and who holds back the tears when Old Glory reaches the top of the flag pole.
I am a “tired American” … who wants to start snapping at those phony “high priests” who want us to bow down and worship their false idols and who seek to destroy the belief that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I am a “tired American” who thanks a merciful Lord that he was so lucky to be born an American citizen … a nation … under God … with truly mercy and justice … for all.
