Let me begin this post by stating something that has become somewhat controversial: I’m proud to be an American. Yes, flaws and all (and America has many flaws) I am proud to be a citizen of the United States and, my dear reader, I am proud to call you my fellow countryman or countrywoman. Regardless of who you’ll vote for in the next election, what colors you fly in your front lawn, or which football team you root for on Sundays, I am truly happy that you’re here with me.
My love for America is deep but it is not naive. I am aware of many, though not all, of our country’s shortcomings and, perhaps like you, I am disappointed with where America has fallen short of her promise. America has a checkered past, there’s no denying it. Only a fool would say that a history including slavery, racism, colonialism and interference in politics abroad is perfect. But you know who else has a checkered past? I do. And even though there was a period where I wanted to “burn myself down” as a result of the errors in my personal history, somewhere along the line I decided I would do the hard work of fixing myself, of righting the ship. I did this through my own will and determination and not without the help of my community, and boy am I glad that I did. The same must be true of our country.
If we can accept that people change and that just because a person did something once, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will continue to do it, why can we not view our country through the same lens? What is a country anyway but a collection of men and women, all trying to do their best with the hands they’ve been dealt, sometimes succeeding and failing often, but perpetually moving forward? Can America do better in tipping the scales towards success and away from failure? Absolutely, and we should hold her accountable. But in doing so, we should also remember that like any individual, she is not perfect. I believe that as long as we work towards something resembling perfection in our own individual lives, she too can get closer to “perfection”. We each have rights bestowed upon us by the Founding Fathers and it is through the exercising of these rights that a better future in America is possible. We must look at America as an ongoing experiment and appreciate that she still has not reached her final form. Or we risk losing her entirely.
As children growing up in the United States, we are taught that America is the greatest country in the world. We are taught that her founding principles of freedom and equality make us standout in history and make us “special”. Thus, we grow up holding America to a high standard. We are sold a high ideal young and truthfully, America does not quite live up to it. Has her aspiration of equality for all been realized? No, not quite… but like it or not, we have steadily gotten closer. The fact that she is not perfect yet doesn’t mean she’s worth throwing away. In a way, the realization that America isn’t what she should be makes me excited. It means that there is an opportunity to improve her. We can be a generation that lifts America closer to its ideals. But, much like lifting a heavy coffee table, she can only be lifted with help.
America has come to a point in her history where those who inhabit her have wildly differing viewpoints on how she should move into the future. There are some, who, angered by her shortcomings and either forgetting or ignoring where she excels, would see her burned and replaced with a system totally reimagined. I can’t help but wonder what it must be like to be in a relationship with such people. Have you ever been in a relationship where you disliked, maybe even began to hate, your partner? How did that end? Almost certainly, not well. If we can’t find it within ourselves to love our country and countrymen, flaws and all, then, like the partner who bottles up their emotions instead of seeking resolution through open dialogue, we may be barreling towards a future where the increasingly pressurized bottle is likely to explode.
Just like the person who has made a mistake in his or her life, who wakes up feeling ashamed for what they had done the day before, there is only one way forward. We must own our past and commit to fixing previous mistakes when confronted with similar decisions in the future. Those who dwell on the past with nothing but regret invariably become blind to opportunities for improvement later on. These opportunities may present themselves in the decisions we face daily and in the ways in which we choose to interact with each other in public life. Filling our hearts with hate for our fellow citizens because they vote for “the enemy” or for our country because it does not match our ideological bent is how we ensure that the hate continues and grows.
I am no political scientist, sociologist, economist or philosopher. I am just a guy who is concerned about his country and his countrymen. I love America and I don’t want to see it burned down or influenced by any extremist ideology. The prospect of something much worse taking her place if she should be destroyed should concern all of us who don’t buy into such destructive ideologies. But, unless those of us who are concerned with the lack of reasonable dialogue and the growing inability to find compromise speak up, it seems inevitable that things will continue to get worse in the US. We must remember what America actually stands for and decide to also stand for it. There is no harm in recognizing that there is work to be done to help her realize her lofty aspirations. But choosing to forego the hard work of patching the holes in the ship and instead choosing to sink her altogether will put us a thousand steps behind where we are right now. I think it is time we devote ourselves to fixing what we have in the image of popular opinion. Steps in this direction can be as small as just having an honest conversation with someone with whom you disagree or choosing to lift up and vote for candidates that represent your vision for a better future and not just your political party. When a candidate tells you to vote for them, ask why. And, when you are told that you should hate a fellow citizen, become skeptical and decide for yourself.
We must demand that America live up to the promise she has made and hold her accountable when she falls short. And, if we can embrace everything that comes with being an American citizen while also demanding better of her, eventually she will change. Politics is the way in which we enact the change we want to see and while the current state of US politics is overwhelmingly unrepresentative of the people who cast votes, there are movements growing everywhere that are demanding a course correction. Find them, support them, promote them. Shake the passiveness from which the current political system has benefited and become an active participant. Every movement that has truly changed our country has started small. If one woman deciding to not give her seat up on a bus can inspire her community and move the country forward, what might a dozen, or a hundred, or a thousand of us do when we drop our personal ideologies and work in unison towards the singular goal of taking back our system from the corrupt forces that currently direct it?
America is not perfect but if we can be graceful with ourselves after we’ve erred as individuals, why should we not afford that same grace to our nation? After all, a nation is nothing but a collection of individuals.