America: The Dream, the Reality, & the Hope
Joe Biden is now our president-elect. While that comes as a relief to the majority of Americans, our country remains deeply divided and the fragility of our democracy and our institutions has been exposed. Our reality is showing beneath our facade of perfection.
I learned long ago that America is not the best nation of earth. It is not the land of freedom and opportunity for most of its inhabitants either. Yet I also know that it is home to many sincere and hard-working people who believe in the vision of the Founding Fathers- for all of its people. That gives me hope for our future.
I hope I live long enough to see an America that is really what it promised to be, a nation built on the belief that “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights…”
Instead, I see an America where democracy is incomplete, where not every person can vote, and those who can and do vote are afraid that their vote will not be counted because of corruption, or that their vote in presidential elections will be stolen by faithless members of the Electoral College- an institution designed to empower slaveholders.
I see an America where too many of our presumably elected officials rarely work for their constituents, but rather to line their own pockets and maintain their power.
I see an America where honest representatives of the people can not get legislation, no matter how necessary or urgent, passed because one man (the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell) has too much power.
I see an America where the checks and balances the Founding Fathers worked to formulate and build have not been sufficient to stop greedy, corrupt people from seizing power.
I see an America where Fascism and ignorance are rising, where dissent and protest may be met with mutilation and death.
I see an America where human rights violations are an everyday occurrence, where only rich white men are truly safe to enjoy “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The rest of us live in fear- fear of being murdered by police or racists or xenophobes, and are overburdened by the intolerable weight of countless daily oppressions.
I see an America where single women and their children are most likely to live in poverty and be homeless, where couples can both work 40 hours a week or more and still not be able to buy food, pay rent and buy necessary medications or have adequate medical care. This is partly because U.S. pharmaceutical companies charge hundreds of times the amount charged for the same medicine in other countries, without check from our government. Their huge donations to corrupt members of the House of Representatives and Congress are mostly why.
I see an America where our veterans are disrespected by our government and are left in poverty without adequate medical care. Far too many are homeless.
I see an America where, alone out of all the advanced nations, refuses to provide medical care for all of her people, where a poor mother is most likely to die in childbirth or soon after giving birth.
I see an America where, despite the amazing dedication of health care professionals, over 333,000 people have died needlessly of a pandemic that other countries successfully contained. Others are suffering from hunger and homelessness as a result of the pandemic because most of our elected officials simply do not care what happens to us.
I see an America where children are taught falsehoods and platitudes about our history, where the only informed adults have taught themselves.
I see an America where traitors, racists and mass murderers are honored with monuments, statues & state parks.
I see an America that makes me weep in sorrow and spit in rage.
Yet, I still have hope in the American people, hope that we will rise up, insist on better for ourselves and our children, vote out corruption, work to restore and strengthen our checks and balances, for affordable healthcare, a living wage, equal opportunities for all, Equity and Justice for every American and every Dreamer and every Asylum Seeker, for police to serve and protect all, not murder and maim, to make our country an honorable one, an honest one, a country that has reckoned with her shameful past and has made reparations for it, a country that is a truly Democratic Republic, where everyone can vote and each vote counts, where all the people can live in safety and security.
More Americans voted in the last election than ever before. Still, that is only about shameful 67% of those elegible to vote. Each American must become part of the change and vote in each election, local or national. Otherwise, how can we build an America we can be proud of, where we can safely raise our children and thrive?
Then we can actually become “the land of the free” as well as the home of the brave.
