When I talk about how frustrated I am, let me explain why. The US has never been perfect. It’s had many, deep flaws. The history of the US is fraught with favoritism and deep seeded bigotry. That said, it was a nation full of people who fought. We fought to make the nation better for all people. In my short life, I have seen women, LGBTQ, and other minority groups gain ground in their pursuit of equality and justice. Under Obama, we saw a shimmering light of progress, not full equality, but more progress than had ever been witnessed. Now this push for equality saw an equal, harder push towards stopping any further progress.
Hatred stewed, and a narrative formed, trying to explain how the work of progressives would “take away” from others. How does asking for equality take away from others? There was no pursuit to remove religious freedoms from Christians. They were free to worship in their churches and prayer houses in peace. We simply asked that the more radical adherents not be allowed to discriminate against others. Pushing for the end of a for-profit prison system, and equal treatment under the law, for minorities, wasn’t taking away the privileges of White America. We simply asked that others be able to enjoy the same freedoms. Legalizing same-sex marriage was not an assault on heterosexual, or religious people. We asked they be treated with the same protections that any couple that is in love be treated with.
People demonize “illegal immigrants” for the same crime that Columbus, and America’s very founding fathers participated in. The pursuit of something better. They mock environmental protections and deny science, in order for profit. We can’t drink money, breathe it, or eat it. This is foolishness at its height.
The pursuit of science and education is laughed at, as if it was something to be ashamed of. The pursuit of knowledge is tantamount for a healthy democracy. We should not speak of intellectualism as if it were something to be avoided. Our very nation depends on scientists and engineers, but also, musicians, and artists.
The radical right is so busy, finding fault in others pursuit of equality, that they have allowed treason to go unanswered. People scream of wars against Christianity, or against white america. No, there are no wars against these things, except the war being fought by those that would see others deported, mistreated, or ignored, simply so that a subsection of America can sleep at night with the belief that they are “better”, all while surrounded by poverty, disease, and pollution.
All of the good that the US stood for, and the good that could have been, are now threatened by the arrogant actions of a small minority of people. They fight to destroy anything that doesn’t fit into their narrow viewpoint. They would take away our freedoms, all while screaming patriotic epitaphs that no longer have any meaning.
If you are a patriot, you will fight for the rights of others. You will pledge your lives, your fortunes, your sacred honor, in order to defend the dream, so easily afforded to a few, and so hard-fought for so many others. Demonizing your friends, neighbors, fellow residents, because they seek to live a life as free as yours, in true equality, is not the mark of a patriot, or a “conservative”. It is the deepest form of treason.
This is why I’m frustrated. This is why I get angry, and fired up. There is nothing wrong with me, I just see what is so horribly wrong with so many others.
This is not a joke. This is not an over reaction. I wish to see America fully live up to its full potential. That will never happen until we fully embrace the words All People are Created Equal.
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