One of the advantages of age is that one remembers the things that popular media forgets.
I remember when America WAS great, when we had a strong middle class, and the minimum wage allowed people to live. No one lived luxuriously on minimum wage, but the necessities of survival were achievable without needing to work 60 or 80 hours a week.
I remember when humans first set foot on the moon. It happened within a few days of my birthday, so in my youthful naivete I thought that it was a birthday present for me from the universe. Maybe it was. I could sure go for a similarly wonderful gift, especially in these dark times.
I remember when immigrants were acknowledged as essential to American culture. Granted Native Americans were given short shrift in years past, and still are, but I cannot remember a time in recent decades when immigrants have been so vilified or so persecuted.
I also remember what it was like before smartphones took over our existence, when digital devices were still in the realm of science fiction, when communications often took days or even weeks. I sometimes wonder what the psychological impact would be from a widespread outage of connectivity. So many people today are addicted to their digital devices. Imagine if, instead of staring at their phones at the dinner table or on busses, people had to actually interact with each other.
Don’t get me wrong, the United States has never been a perfect nation. That said, at no time before in our history have we been overtaken by fascism and corruption. Both existed within our borders, but now they are ascendant, and our government has failed completely to withstand them. Even if everyone from the current administration and all of Congress were to evaporate off the surface of the planet this instant, it would take decades for our nation to return to any degree of the credibility or respect that we once enjoyed.
We have become at best, a laughing stock, and at worse, feared as if we were a rabid and unpredictable animal. As someone whose ancestry goes back to years prior to the foundation of our nation, that fall from a place of trust and respect with other nations globally hurts more than words can say. I am bereft, and I am ashamed.
Too many Americans seem to have forgotten that a century ago we we rallied ourselves and put ourselves to the hazard for the world. We did so to fight fascism, the exact same kind of fascism that has taken over the government of the United States.
I want my country back.
I want to live in a country where the American Dream is for everyone who is willing to come to this country and work diligently for something better. That doesn’t mean killing themselves with an endless hustle. It means contributing to the communities where they live, working with their neighbors to make their communities the best they can be.
I want to live in a country where science is respected. Science is what took us to the Moon. It gave us the automobile, the airplane, and so many other innovations. Science is what put that smartphone in your hand, what gave you 4K ultra clear high res televisions. All of your beloved gadgets and gizmos are because of science. I want to live in a world 900 scientists who are in agreement are more respected than one jackass with an opinion.
I also want to see us continue progress that was begun during the 20th century. Things like improved civil rights for all American citizens, like true equality between genders and races. I don’t know that humans are capable of creating a truly classless society, not at this stage anyway, but the disparity between the haves and the have nots diminishes us all.
We have enough resources to care for every human on the planet, but we don’t. That’s a choice.
The United States could lead, as it once did, in showing the world that a diverse society can thrive, that democracy can work, that we can take care of our own while remaining a beacon for those who seek something better. That would also be a choice.
Instead, we have chosen cruelty. We have chosen division. We have chosen to enrich the few at the expense of the many, to demonize the vulnerable, to treat ignorance as if it were wisdom.
This is not the country I grew up believing in. This is not the nation that my ancestors helped build. And I refuse to accept that this is what we must become.
The fight for the soul of America is not over. Democracy is not dead, though it is gravely wounded. The values that once made us admired, however imperfectly we lived up to them, still exist in the hearts of millions of Americans who remember what we were and who we can be again.
I am angry. I am heartbroken. But I am not defeated.
I want my country back. And I believe there are millions of others who feel the same way. The question is whether we have the courage to fight for it, not with violence or hatred, but with the same determination that took us to the moon, that built the middle class, that expanded civil rights despite fierce opposition.
We have done difficult things before. We can do them again.
The alternative is unacceptable.