I have loved America and American history since before I can remember, but honestly, some of it makes painful reading, especially when you have to read of good things deliberately destroyed by the fears and prejudices of others. Eventually, some of what was lost can be regained, but think of all those wasted years! And today (at least since 1994, when a deliberately obstructionist Republican majority was elected to the House of Representatives in reaction to Bill Clinton’s first two years) we are in the trough of one of those spells of reaction that undo the good and reinforce the malicious.
But even in bad times, some good things survive, and serve as models.