As a senior at Brandeis, I've seen plenty of anti-Americanism on campus. When the American military invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003, for example, I was not surprised to see a student-led, bongo drum-pounding rally in Rabb Quad. Almost three years later, however, many Brandeisians still express a general disgust with our country and government that goes well beyond criticizing its policies. Political presentations, teach-ins and club-sponsored events, classes and even everyday conversations seem rife with general anti-Americanism.Perhaps the extremely progressive liberal-arts environment contributes to this situation. After all, neither college students nor New England are typically known for praising the U.S. government. Granted, I would be the first to condemn certain things about the United States: an unjustified invasion, a less-than-eloquent (or competent) president, bid-rigging and political cronyism-the list of our country's political shortcomings goes on and on. But should we hate America for this?

One can easily criticize the government, but it seems more difficult to appreciate one's fortune of living in a country that fundamentally upholds the values of freedom and human life. Alongside myriad non-governmental analysts, government employees prove their commitment to these pursuits by constantly attempting to discern the best policies for the nation and to answer the question "What is the right thing to do?"

Every day, investigations, committees, federal courts and bodies such as Congressional Research Services furnish candid perspectives that not only criticize government actions but also provide quality recommendations for improvement.

These processes simply do not exist in many other countries. Two weeks ago week in Kenya, for instance, a newspaper that published an article criticizing that nation's prime minister was visited by masked policemen who destroyed the presses, torched papers and assaulted staff members. When reading such news, shouldn't we feel at least somewhat thankful to live under a government that allows criticism and even criticizes itself? A Cairo cab driver once affirmed this when he told me, "You Americans hold up your signs that say, 'Bush! Bush!' or 'Kerry! Kerry!' We hold up signs and we go to jail!" A country like his fundamentally differs from America.

As for President Bush and his poor decisions, he and his colleagues still act with the fundamental belief that all people deserve certain rights by virtue of being human and should be treated as such. Look at Iraq: There's no doubt that America is running a police state, but surely it would be more manageable if, say, American troops rooted out insurgents by killing many Iraqis in certain problematic areas of the country. Cast a wide net to make sure the fish are caught, right? Or perhaps we could wage a more successful war on terror by announcing that America will respond to terrorist attacks by murdering the families of those responsible. It would definitely be justifiable (and certainly feasible), right?

The answer, of course, is a resounding "No." We make no such policies and never will because we consider them absolutely unacceptable and antithetical to our democratic beliefs. Our ongoing difficulties in Iraq clearly show that America goes to great lengths to accomplish our political goals without surrendering its fundamental integrity as a democratic nation.

In China, police opened fire on poor rural protesters who lost their land to state repossessions. We lament the loss of civil liberties since 9/11, but in Nepal, the king has instituted martial law and revoked many human rights and democratic freedoms to fight his own war against Maoist separatists. And I shouldn't even have to mention Sudan. These countries and several others unabashedly deny their citizens fundamental liberties and human rights as state policy. The United States, on the other hand, refuses to treat citizens of other countries in such disgraceful ways, let alone its own people. No doubt there have been some inexcusable mistakes by careless Americans (like Abu Ghraib), but these occurrences are anomalous and have absolutely no place in the goals and policy of the U.S. government.

Is this an argument for spreading democracy throughout the world? No. Am I imploring you to always agree with the decisions of the American government? Absolutely not. I simply believe that especially in a time when much of our country has such low morale, we should not forget our privilege of being citizens of a country with extremely high democratic values when we criticize America.

Our government continuously engages in an ongoing, critical dialogue with itself to ensure that its policies and procedures are as morally and legally appropriate as possible. Governments have no obligation to be this self-critical and many don't try. Realizing this, for the first time in a while, I'm feeling proud to be an American.