Remember when Michelle Obama uttered, “I feel proud to be an American now?” She had expressed relief that voters gave her husband a vote of confidence in winning the Presidency a second time.
But her comment was taken by the press and Obama’s enemies
to be an admission that Michelle was not pleased to be an American most times.
That was not the truth, but it was how it was taken by many.
I know the feeling. Bitter disappointment in my nation of
birth. Disillusionment with our values we say we support but do not match with
action. Rhetoric yes, action no.
This is true in so many instances:
-Equality: we say ‘all people are created equal’ but
promptly claim other races are smarter, brighter, and more favored than others.
White supremacy is totally about this. Meanwhile, equality takes a back seat,
in fact far back in the rear seat of the bus.
-Justice: we claim ‘justice for all’ yet allow police
to walk all over people of color, pressing their own discriminatory beliefs on
them and then raising the death rate at the hands of police. The data is clear.
Why have we not yet fixed this problem?
-Investment in People: we lay claim to massive
investment in educating our people, yet the outcomes do not reflect that. People
of color are left in poverty and unequal access to the very resources they need
to exit poverty and find their potential to excel for their own good and that
of our society.
-Abortion: we claim religious principle in saving the
lives of the unborn and yet allow the babies of poverty to live lives of
desperation and abuse. Fix that and then support anti-abortion laws.
-Religion vs Politics: separation of church and state
is a principle most of us truly believe, yet we allow freedom of speech and
freedom in general to allow religion a space at the table of politics. This is
clearly wrong. Yet we allow it. Champion it as proof of our ethical purity? Absurd
claim. Fix it.
-Politics vs History: we allow election campaigns to
coin terms and slogans that distort historical fact and misrepresent history
for their own gain. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from fact. Freedom
of press does not mean freedom to misrepresent. The voice of freedom should be
true and honest. Until this is fact, we live in a world that mocks truth.
-Freedom warped: as long as it is my freedom or yours
with our own definitions of protection and preference, it is OK. When it
belongs to others with which we do not agree, it is another proposition
entirely. This is not freedom. It is freedom warped and thus fraudulent.
I feel what Michelle Obama felt. I feel it today. My pride
in America is in its hope, not in its current status. I am not a socialist. I am
not a communist. I am a believer in the American Dream of justice, equality and
freedom. This is a work in progress.
It is a shame the progress is so slow and backsliding.
Let us pull together for the greater outcomes we believe in.
Let us not fall for short term distortion in place of long term principle.
August 9, 2021
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