What Happened to my America?

I better start by saying this is not a political post. Frankly, I’ve been riding the political roller coaster for the past several weeks and I’m ready to get off. Instead, this is an appeal; an appeal to sound thinking and to all of the things that already made America great. America didn’t become the most respected country because of its wealth or military might. America didn’t rise to the forefront by becoming an exclusive members-only club that only certain groups have access to under certain conditions. America is and always has been an ideal. It is a free land composed of immigrants all seeking freedom from the tyranny of nations that sought to control them. Suffice it to say, I’m pretty disappointed in my America today…

One wonderful benefit of living in a free country is the citizens’ profound right to live according to their personal values. Who and how you worship is an individual decision. Fearing and harboring hostility towards people with different values runs counterproductive to all that America represents. America hasn’t even been around long enough to claim sovereign independence from all other nations. What today is a Syrian was yesterday an Italian. What makes America great is not the first country listed in the background, but the second country that follows the hyphen. A Mexican-American is an American. An African-American is an American. To think that you are exclusively American and that all others are immigrants simply points to either a poor memory or the inability to read a history book. A Native-American might be the only one with original claims on the country and for that he has been rounded up and resettled as has been eloquently rationalized. I’m disappointed today because we have forgotten why there is an America and have fallen prey to the same tyranny that we sought to escape! They promised us safety and security, but so did the nations we escaped from.

Many have fallen for the foolish notion that being an American means you have to get behind everything promoted in the name of America or else you are some kind of traitor or are unpatriotic. If you bow down during the anthem you somehow don’t have respect for the flag. But, maybe that so-called traitor wasn’t seeking to separate from America, but rather demand that America treat him and his people the way it treated its other citizens. Millions of women have marched in defiance of ideas that run at cross purposes with humanity. In a free country, the people are free to protest the things that aren’t right. You should protest the things that aren’t right and refuse to allow other people to control you or demand that you get in line with the other sheep for the good of the union. Any union fully comprised of sheep will soon no longer be a union. You see, the insanity of today seeks to reduce ideas to a competition that one must win at all costs whether they defy all consciousness, reason or right! The American people should not quest to be right but rather quest for what is good, kind and beneficial to all. Ridiculing the protestors and accusing them of weakness simply shows how deluded people have become. If the measuring stick for decisions is only what affects me and my personal life, how can that even be remotely considered Christian? America is great because people have the freedom to stand against what isn’t right and continuing standing until the wrong is overcome! Americans protest all forms of sordid ugliness that seek to tarnish America’s image; what she stands for…

The great America opens her doors to the disenfranchised, the desperate, the diminished. And given the opportunity, people will come through her gates without deceit or treachery. Illegal immigrants are often illegal because they lack the means to become legal. They aren’t the criminals or rapists and you know that already. They are the desperate, the disenfranchised, the very ones to which Lady Liberty bids entrée. Conversely, with every freedom comes a parallel risk to choose badly, commit crimes and do things not in line with the greater good. Well, wake up America, that is a choice every free American has already and no size wall will ever take that away. Freedom admits to the potential for bad but it is always outweighed by the potential for good. At the very core of humanity is a concern for other people no matter how favorable or unfavorable our present conditions. To achieve success and enjoy life’s good and then forget all those suffering, because you are no longer suffering , is a blight on America and her affluence. America’s wealth was built on America’s unfailing ability to give and serve and come to the aid of those in dire need for which God has rewarded her handsomely.

Although I have become disappointed in America, I am not in despair. I know that her forefathers devised a system of checks and balances, put in place to prevent the insanity or indeed charm of one person from unraveling America at her very roots. One man may huff and puff, threaten and punish, sign and proclaim, but America is still made up of her people, who if not properly represented will protest and if represented will repeal. The truth, the good, the magnanimous will always find its way to the top, because it is the top. Even the uneducated masses, those deceived and falsely persuaded, all soon feel the sting of injuries done and rallying in their losses get behind someone or something else.

I know in the end you are going to come through for me America, because your ideal is my ideal and no matter what happens all around me, I will not depart from you. You are the lit city on a hill and no amount of darkness will ever diminish your light.

God bless you America; my America!

Just some good thoughts…