I read his letter as "hey you guys, I'm not affected by this, so what's the big fucking deal anyways?"

I've always hated how people compare us to some of the worst places on the planet and then say, "well, we have freedom and prosperity here, so STFU about MERICA. You need to show some gratitude!"

It's such cop out and a terrible argument.

That's not how normal people think about things. Normal Americans tend to think we should strive to be better and to always try to be among the best if not the very best. We should hope to be the model, the actual shining city on the hill, and the example for others to point to when they are trying to strive to do better.

I'm trying to think of how that dumb argument would fly in almost any other context - "Hey Dad, that one kid failed out of school, so my F in this class is no big deal. Let's have a group hug?"