What is America to Me

What is America to me

This essay was inspired by a Storyworth.com proposal, “What makes you feel proud to be an American? What do you wish we’d do better?” At this point in time love is too strong a word to use with regard to America. There is too much about what has been happening for me to come out and say that I love America.

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Anonymous

The above quote describes some of the craziness that is infecting this country and of course is about Donald Trump, in 2024, who is a former president, convicted felon and currently the GOP front runner for president, and someone who has a cult following of millions of people. The America of today seems to be vastly different from the America of 40-50 years ago.

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In spite of growing up having parents who did not make very much money, I feel I grew up relatively privileged, especially compared to many Americans. I was fortunate that at that time in the 1960’s, I was accepted to Northwestern University when the tuition was around $1000 (which would be about $7600 today). I was also able to take alternate quarters away from school on a coop program where I was able to earn my tuition without having to work while in school. I got a free ride that included a stipend while in graduate school.

I grew up in a pretty sequestered environment believing in the American Dream and that everything about me country was good. That is until I read “The People’s History of the United States”, by Howard Zinn. It shattered what I had learned about the history. My conclusion was that my country has a very sordid past and that all is not what it appeared to be. My eyes opened even wider when I moved to New York City on a NIH fellowship. The people I worked with had points of view I had never encountered. One man in particular challenged a lot of my views and I became more radical, but in a nonviolent way. That period was also the free speech movement, Woodstock, and the numerous anti-Vietnam War protests.

In reality, America is not some arbitrary idea, although many people talk about it as if it were. The flag that some rally around is a symbol, much like that idols that have been worshipped. America is its people who determine its quality and tenor. A sizable portion of the population, while still a minority, seek to rule with that minority. Their ideas and proposed policies are highly questionable and are the antitheses of our democratic republic.

Because of all of this and more, I have become very disillusioned about my country. There is so much. It is hard to take pride in being an American. So much of what we are told by the powers that be are lies:

1) We do not have the greatest healthcare system. Rather, we have the most expensive. It is driven by greed from the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Insurance companies are dictating treatments and hospitalization discharges. Training for physicians is very expensive requiring services rendered by medical practitioners to pass that onto patients or not accept insurance or medicare. Politicians are taking over medical diagnosis and accepted practices. The policies put forth for the covid pandemic became a political issue and somehow were interpreted as restricting our freedoms.

2) What is freedom anyway? It is often interpreted as license to do anything.

3) The cost of college tuition.

4) The resistance to making the necessary changes to slow down or reverse climate change is mind boggling. In spite of the ever increasing frequency and intensity of storms, it is ignored.

5) Climate change and record heat.

6) The high cost of goods and services is unsustainable. It appears that politicians just use that to blame the other side rather than taking action.

7) Congress’ lack of the ability to legislate.

8) The shift to political interpretation of the constitution by a right wing majority of the supreme court and the increasing appearances of impropriety and outright corruption. Many decisions are being made with political or religious interpretations of our laws with lies having been made about honoring precedents.

9) A supreme court justice suggesting that following a judges ruling may be optional

10) The government consistently making political and and inconsistent decisions. For example, supporting the fossil fuel industry while stating support for renewable energy. Or stating support for a cease fire in Gaza while sending more bombs to Israel.

11) The insanity of electing a president who will be a dictator, is a convicted felon and indicted on dozens of criminal charges, is incoherent most of the time and is a national cult leader.

12) Capitalism as an inherent danger threatening the very existence of humanity. It drives so many decisions, policies and laws instead of what is actually needed.

13) We were lied to about the Viet Nam war regarding the actual events surrounding the Gulf of Tonkin that caused millions of deaths and untold environmental damage.

14) Freedom of speech is turning into freedom for hate speech while truth is being condemned, including prosecution of people executing their 1st amendment rights of peaceful protests.

15) The rise of the religious right extremism specifically and extremism in general. The apparent love by the extreme right of fascism, the confederacy, Hitler and the belief that the country was founded on Christianity.

16) The misinterpretation of the separation of church and state as well as the 2nd amendment that seems to ignore what a “…well regulated militia…” means. The push to make the country a Christian one and incorporate the bible (primarily the old testament, ignoring the new testament, into schools and government offices).

17) The failure of current and past administrations to take meaningful actions to address the concerns of many Americans forcing irrational decisions made by those people to follow politicians who promise the world and have a rightful distrust of government institutions.

18) The supreme court making the irrational decision to enable corporate campaign contributions greatly tilting elections to those who support corporate interests over the rights of private citizens. The 2010 “Citizens United” decision by the supreme court tilted political influence to the wealthy donors and corporations.

19) The supreme court over turning a 50 year old precedent regarding abortion rights opened the door wider for restricting women’s rights and inserting themselves into medical decisions. (Who gave them and other politicians the right to practice medicine).

20) Supreme court candidates lying to the Senate about supporting precedents. (Isn’t lying to congress a crime?)

21) SCOTUS granting the president immunity from prosecution for “official” acts.

22) Ignoring the many contributions immigrants make to our society and economy and lying about them.

23) The stupidity that republicans on the street were asked if the US is a democracy. They said no, it’s a republic, parroting the party line. When asked what the difference is, they had no clue! The goal of the republican party is minority rule via the current electoral college vote rather than popular vote.

And so on ad nauseam.

So what do I like about America? Other than the high cost of everything putting a great deal of stress on my spouse and I, we are pretty much left alone to do what we want, to travel where we want and to live where we want (which means where we can afford). I am not restricted (yet) by what I read or have to say. There are still many very beautiful natural areas left, although they are under threats for development. Yet if the election in the Fall goes a particular way, America will become a shit hole and one in which we would find impossible to live.

It is interesting to me that so many of the things I like are followed by a caveat. So many of the people who are in need say they love America and if you don’t then leave. They wave the flag while abusing the US Flag Code. They attack those who are critical and protest even though while professing the 1st amendment. It is striking to me how many people hide behind the flag with a false show of patriotism while denying the free speech of others.

So why do I continue to live here. For one thing my spouse and I have established a home in a location we love in the foothills west of Boulder, CO. A rural location surrounded by space, trees, wildlife and great neighbors. Additionally, I have medical issues and have established relationships with practitioners that I trust. Because of its beauty, it is a difficult place from which to move.

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In summary, we seem to have entered the next age of unreason, the next dark ages.

One explanation is that the earth entered a zone in space where certain groups of people become stupid.

We as the human inhabitants of this planet went through periods where reason was punished, sometimes by death. These were periods of intellectual darkness and barbarity. In spite of the advances of science and technology creating, at least for some, prosperity and convenience. However, over the last several decades, there is a trend towards ignoring what we can plainly perceive. Namely, climate change with concomitant extreme weather events causing billions of dollars of damage and recovery costs. We are ignoring the ways in which we can protect ourselves against a very dangerous virus. We are, in a few words, killing our planet and ourselves.

Over the last few decades, there is an increasing political resistance by some in power, to oppose mitigations that protect us from the forces that affect us. Many of these mitigations require lifestyle changes which run counter to the notions of how things are supposed to be and the myth of the American dream.