I've been busy the past few months even though on the surface it feels on some level that I haven't been producing as much as I'd like.
I've been busy listening though. Listening to the other side. Listening to journalists I hadn't seen or heard before. Listening to the whole of the problems of America.
Like it or not, this country has problems that we cannot run from. We can't hide and duck our heads, and we can't pretend anymore that the time and place we live in, is anything like the world that existed before.
Climate Change
Nuclear Weapons Expansion
Immigration
White Nationalism/Supremacy
Medical Systems
Gun Violence
The Wealth Gap
Taking Care of Veterans
Education
Criminal Justice Reform
The Legalization of Cannabis
Addressing the Opioid Epidemic and Ending the War on Drugs.
After my last day of work, I listened to a family member talk about the financial impact of Cancer.
It seemed wrong to me that for them, and countless others that live in America today that they would have to choose between health care and financial ruin. It seems wrong that the society of today continues to make money on the life and death of its fellow citizens. The society I would like to be a part of would not put profits and money ahead of the health and well being of it's citizens.
I'm sweating as I listen to how it would cost an extra $3,000 for this test or the next, or chose between doctors and hospitals, and I realize that I'm sweating. While the sun is setting behind the trees, it still feels about 90 degrees and humid. Everything feels sticky and heavy.
My mind wanders to the doomsday predictions about how our climate is changing, and it's doing so faster and faster. It was another record high today, if not here, then somewhere else. Each month it seems like there's another unique heatwave or polar vortex caused by the ever disintegrating glaciers that continue to shed chunks of iceberg at an alarming rate.
I scroll through Facebook and find an account advocating for violence towards local protesters, suggesting they be run over like Heather Heyer who was in Charlottesville protesting Neo-Nazis.
I think of the veterans who have come home and have to come to grips with the things they've seen, heard, and at times, what they've done. How veterans of the Vietnam and Iraq wars are still dealing with the trauma caused by the hell we had them visit. I work with a former Navy veteran and while he empathizes with a lot of my positions, there is a feeling about the people that he sees who can't get the resources that they need.
That we need to take care of some people who already live here too.
I agree, but what is wrong with doing both?
The politicians are trying to divide us on these issues. That having it one way is right, and the others are wrong, even when the problems are the same.
Take the issue of immigration that is going on now. Nearly everyone would be in agreement that there is room for people to become part of a robust economy and contribute to our society. That is what we would want to encourage. Our ideals SHOULD attract people to our communities and we can share in our collective well-being. We should WANT people to come over and be part of America.
Yet due to the influx and sheer amount of people it has become difficult to help these people quickly become documented citizens of the United States.
Well, we could allocate resources to help them become citizens. Better yet, we could offer jobs to those like returning veterans or new recruits that want to help this country become even better, by helping those that want to come to America.
I like the idea of setting up clinics and schools in the south to help assimilate more immigrants. Sending those that would work on behalf of the state to help people become American. More people working and creating jobs, would in turn, help our economy.
That is the America I like to think of. A "kind" America. One that saw the errors of its ways when it came to slavery and to segregation. That found itself bemoaning the choices that led to the perpetual wars in Vietnam and Iraq. That realized the camps set up to detain people of Japanese descent after Pearl Harbor and that the camps used to imprison immigrant children and families are wrong and are against the values of this nation.
When will that America step up again?
To me an American is not bound by where they were born. To be an American, to me, is only to be human and to believe in humanity itself.
We often quote the famous phrase of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" but we overlook the first words of "Unalienable".
To me those words matter as much, if not more, than the others. That no matter who you are, whether or not you were born here or you arrived here by ANY other means, you have those particular rights, and that our government was sworn to protect them.
America is more than a country; it is an idea. An idea based on freedom, but also ensuring that every person that sets foot on its soil is treated as somebody that has those unalienable rights. That we look at our fellow men and women from all races and religions and see a person of value and possessing the exact same unalienable rights that we have ourselves. For we are equal in our humanity.
America has been wrong, and it has been cruel. Yet there is another
America that has been kind and has been just, and I'm hoping that as
time moves forward, we will see that America again.
