She said "really proud" not just "proud".
Many people have mixed feelings about the mixed history of their beloved country. (It is much more difficult to make a sound bite out of "she said she had never been really proud of this country".)
Not paying the gas tax will only help you if you're not going to drive on the roads. If you're planning to use the roads, chipping in towards maintaining them is a good idea.
We can't get past something unless we start from where we are. There has been a lot of anger in the black community in the past 20 years and with the previous generation and that is one thing we might be able to get past but only if we accept its legitimacy.
more?
(If Obama is president for the next eight years, and I certainly hope he will be, I'm afraid we are going to have to listen to a lot of carefully chosen, but slightly ponderous and indirect, words. Oh well.)