My America
Let me tell you about my America.
My America is where my neighbors set off fireworks when Mexico wins a World Cup match. It is also where my neighbors set off fireworks when the US wins.
My America is a Salvadoran cook making Japanese sushi at a restaurant owned by Koreans.
My America is where my white sister-in-law lives with her Black ex-husband in a platonic relationship and takes care of her daughter's golden doodle.
My America is where my Black grandniece dresses as a different anime character every Halloween.
America is not, and never has been, a land of blood and soil. At least, not when it is true to itself.
My America is an America which recognizes the crimes it has committed in the past and rectifies them.
My America is the America of Langston Hughes, Dolores Huerta, Dorothy Day. And this America is far stronger than the one of Andrew Jackson, Joe McCarthy, and Donald Trump.
My America is the America where its people strive to make perfect an imperfect Union, knowing that it will never be perfect, but in the struggle is where life and hope lay.
Yes, like Malcolm X, we can say that the chickens have come home to roost. And boy, have they. All the poisons in the mud are springing forth, as those who used to be the majority see their numbers decrease. But why are their numbers decreasing? Because this imperfect country accepts people from all over the world. It accepts those fleeing death and destruction and welcomes them. It accepts those seeking to create something new, and honors them.
My America is a nation of refugees, of those fleeing tyranny and oppression, who make a new life in this haven.
My America is the America where its former slaves are now the center of American arts and culture. Without Black America, we would be a much poorer country. We wouldn't be "America".
My America is where Jew and Muslim, Christian and Hindu, can and should live side by side, secure in their own beliefs, not bullied or suppressed by anyone else. That America seems to be hidden. But it's there. And it's our work to make it the America.
My America is the America where people want to live their lives in peace, to welcome the stranger as their own, and not be roiled in the culture wars. Whether you're trans has no impact on me. All I care is that you are a good person, and a good citizen.
My America is where citizens finally realize that any power derives from them, not from the wealthy, not from the powerful. Politicians don't rule us. Oligarchs don't rule us. We rule them.
And that has been this country's promise. That ordinary men and women, from all walks of life, are competent enough to govern themselves, and that power does not exist save from the will of those people.
We are in a dark time. I won't deny that. But is it darker than centuries of chattel slavery and Jim Crow? Is it darker than centuries of Native genocide? Is it darker than conquest and war?
There are many times I want to give up on this experiment. But my sainted parents did not flee a dictatorship for their son to sully their sacrifices. I will not do that.
This is the time for all Americans of decency, of moral clarity, to say "this far and no further". That this last, best hope will not fall into the darkness like so many empires.
The democracies which America has helped foster since the end of the Second World War are new in human history. In the ten thousand-year sweep of settled human life, mass, participatory democracy is an aberration. And this aberration has brought a level of wealth and stability which humanity has never known before. Too many are complacent, and this is why we face the danger we face now. But the answer is not to throw up our hands and give in to the inevitable replacing of democracy with tyranny, as if we are the Roman Republic just before Augustus. We have agency. We have all the power we need to ensure that government by the people and for the people will not perish. To think otherwise is to abuse the memories of all those who came before us, who strove, bled, and died to hand us this world.
This world is a gift. Our lives are the most precious things we have. And while I may get dejected, I will not surrender to yesterday's men. They are a dying race. Let them pass.
Postscript
This is my commemoration of July 4. This weekend we will have summer vibes. And why? Because, as our resident historian Rational Left will tell you, the Declaration of Independence was signed today in 1776.