“America is back”. The opening line of a commercial, I had to wonder, “Really? Where was it?”
As far as I can tell, America hasn’t taken a trip anywhere, though it has meandered a bit. These last years, the country’s been pulled in every direction. Like Gumby, it’s been stretched to its limits. With just months left before the elections, I wouldn’t blame the country if it tried to hide until the worst is over. But then, what is the worst? To be sure, we’ve certainly seen a whole lot of bad behavior but I suspect there’s a lot more backstage. If America was a kid, it would have been grounded for days. But when there are millions of them, who’ve been busy setting little fires everywhere, the only place to go – is the voting booth.
To anyone who thinks otherwise, America belongs to EVERYONE. Sorry to break it to all the self-anointed ‘true Americans’ but you are far from the only people with dibs on this land. The original inhabitants found out the hard way that even real authenticity couldn’t save them. When the new guys (English refugees otherwise known as Pilgrims) pulled up, those early indigenous people helped the newbies survive the first brutal seasons. What they got for their trouble was a tee shirt and a ticket to never neverlands of the new landlords’ choosing. Never say we don’t know how to make reservations!
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.
Mark Twain
For 248 years, America’s been stepping away, and coming back. We’ve been to war, to the moon and to the polls. We’ve raised the flag, our voices, our fists, and a plethora of guns. We’ve seen the best and worst of times. We fled a monarchy, started a republic and today, we’re doing a dangerous dance between them both. The resurgent rise in both populism and nationalism could easily pull the fire alarm. All I can hope is that we remember how that all worked across the pond out 50 years ago.
Through it all, America remains a great, and beautiful land with fierce spirit and a compassionate soul. Despite all its growing pains, we learned to walk, and learned to rise. We became a country to reckon with. Yet, those who came after the Mayflower crowd never got dibs on sleeping arrangements — or rights. Newbies everywhere all go through a version of fraternity hazing, and we put our own spin on things. None were immune from suspicion, job blocking, violence or ghettos. Escaping to a country who welcomes the world’s ‘tired, hungry and poor’, just like the Pilgrim dudes, most brought different speech, and different cultures. Though all went through their own time in the barrel, those with dark complexion, shipped here in chains, always found more hell than hope.
America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. Alexis de Tocqueville
America has been rich, poor and in between. We’ve been to war, juggled peace and though the people we put in charge weren’t always our favorites, we believed they had our backs. Often many padded pockets (theirs not ours), handed gifts to corporations in our name, and created an IOU so large our grandchildren are will be saddled to old age with debt. Still, many leaders have shone, have lead, have helped build this country’s greatness with integrity and courage. Our history has never led us to fear our elected leader. Having escaped a king, we would never accept a demogogue. We could never choose someone who exudes meanness and mendacity instead of morals, who could threaten the very lives of their fellow Americans.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. Abraham Lincoln
Did America leave – or did we leave it? Since 46% of the country never voted in the last election, I’m thinking maybe the latter. If our country left when we weren’t watching, why weren’t we? If we checked out, was it because we couldn’t bear to see what we were becoming? And if that were the case, we’d better buckle up and take an extended vacay. We are full up today with things that go bump in the night and we can only blame ourselves.
Voting has always been checks and balances on dictatorship, monarchy and well, chaos. We haven’t crossed those particular cliffs yet, though goblins of history fly around on a regular basis. The 17th Amendment decreed that senators would be elected directly by the people. The 19th Amendment finally gave the hard fought right to vote to women in 1920. That’s right women, half of the American population, the ones who gave birth to the other half, had to beg to vote. The Voting Rights act, enacted to protect the vote of Black Americans, came in 1965. Yet, Jim Crow now dressed in new clothes, chuckles as those same Black American votes continue to be suppressed in several states.
“If everything is to stay the same, everything has to change”. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa Tancredi
Politicians are a peculiar lot. They represent us just enough to get on the ballot and the vote, but not enough to stand up when truth is required. Campaign finance boosts them up with ever-burgeoning dollars and, without term limits, they have jobs that keep on giving, whether they perform or not. They don’t take cues from the original promise of their positions, ones held by their colonial predecessors and think we won’t catch on.
The movie ‘John Adams’ should be required viewing for everyone who wants to understand how our country was born and what those who nurtured it were made of. Early framers included a hemp farmer, smuggler, even a revolutionary. They were mostly poor, some hardly educated but all believed in this infant country. I wonder if they would recognize their governing counterparts today.
America was born of revolt, flourished on dissent, and became great through experimentation. Henry Steele Commager.
America is growing but are we smarter, more compassionate, kinder? Should having the best stock market in 50 years be our main claim to fame or the fact that, with 120 guns per 100 citizens, we have more firearms than any country in the world? Those who think vanilla is the only flavor are terrified that latte people will take over. Though the glass ceiling has a few cracks, it still rigidly holds its place. Different strokes for different folks may be wrapped in a colorful rainbow but so many think in black and white.
Here’s the thing. We can’t have a stranglehold on the status quo without losing what made us America in the first place. If we do, the ‘shining city on the hill’ will never again be a light in this world. We have another chance to get it right. Elections are less than 4 months away. Don’t blow it. We are so much more than the flag, anthem, or pledge; we are the people. We are America and we need what you were born to be. We need to fight racism, division and hatred — not surrender to it.
America, you were always great. YOU be YOU.
We all have stories and mine are neither unusual nor technicolor blockbusters. All I can hope is whatever I share sparks a continuing conversation, one that invites ideas, opinions and discussion.
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The Other Shoe 