Face of a Nation

We can stop traffic to allow ducklings, snakes, dogs and cats to cross busy streets. But we don’t know how to manage the pinnacle success of our nation’s history – its welcoming embrace of immigrants from all over the globe.

Yes, we are a nation of immigrants. Each and every one of us.

But now there is a sizable group of citizens supporting closing our borders, separating kids of all ages from their parents, and prosecuting immigrants seeking refuge, asylum and citizenship. We even allowed DACA kids time to get an education, a career start, and a beginning of citizenship. We accepted their contributions of talents and military service. But now we are tossing them out, too.

Not good enough for us, the US?

I don’t think so. There is more courage, spunk and talent in many of the newcomers than there is in many of our fat and lazy citizens who don’t understand the current crisis. Yet they are the bulk of the support for building the wall. Sad. Shameful. Out of character with our nation’s history.

And out of step.

That’s where the rest of us enter the picture. We can change all of this: with what we think, feel, say and do. Think about that. Think. Feel, too.

What you read and see over the internet, TV or radio, does it represent what you think and feel America is about?  Is your image of our nation different? Is it a better one, a brighter sense of future? If so, express yourself.

Share your thoughts on Facebook, or write a blog, or send an email to the radio or TV station. Offer your thoughts on these matters. Don’t be silent. Speak up. Write up. Act up?

Not sure what I mean by the latter, but ‘act up’ in the sense of doing what you can to change the picture our nation is broadcasting of itself through its news persona. I’m not suggesting acting out your frustration or anger. I’m not suggesting civil disobedience.

I am suggesting to be yourself but with an expression that others can witness. That may be a smile, or the willingness to offer your opinion politely in a discussion among friends and family of what you are feeling about current affairs. Somehow we have to be polite but also present with one another. That is not always a comfortable transition to make.

I hate confrontation. I am uncomfortable with it. Can and will often lose my temper and say things I wish I hadn’t. So I avoid public confrontation. It doesn’t work well with me.

I write this blog. It goes on my Facebook page, too. The Blog is read internationally; not a lot of traffic, but readers span Europe, Asia and North and South America. Those readers get my ‘face of America’ from the blog. That’s the least I can do.

But you have to find your own means to be present. A blog? A poem or book of poems? Perhaps you are a visual artist? Then paint, sculpt or create an image expressive of your thoughts, your being in the world.

It is important you do this for your own sake. In this crazy world it is important to the global community as well that you do this. That’s art: good for you and for countless others all at the same moment.

The positive needs to be heard along with the negative. That makes it real. Right now, the Face of the Nation is a poor one and getting worse. It is up to the rest of us to change that face to one more representative of the whole nation.

A whole face of the nation. Will you help make this happen? We need you.

June 22, 2018