I am not afraid of people from other countries, or with different religious beliefs. I do not fear immigrants, After all, those who founded America were immigrants. They were dissenters. Some, if not all, were considered troublemakers and traitors. Sometimes people have to be troublemakers to effect real change. Where would be be if our forefathers hadn't had the courage to rock the boat, to put their lives and their fortunes on the line for the greater good?
But I'm not a zealot. I don't own a gun. I don't tell people who have concerns about the direction this country has taken to "move to Russia" or "get the hell out." I believe that people can love their country, but still disagree with the decisions its elected officials make. People can love their country and still become activists to try and change things they believe need to be changed. Indeed, working to make a great country even better through peaceful activism is as it should be.
I believe the current situation on this country's southern border is a disaster. We cannot and we should not be expected to allow hundreds of thousands of immigrants to enter the country every month without some sort of screening. There have to be controls in place. There must be a mechanism for screening people. But keeping people, particularly children who have been taken from their parents, locked in cages is morally wrong. Making them sleep on a concrete floor, depriving them of showers and toothbrushes and other basic hygiene supplies, is morally wrong. The entire immigration system is woefully broken.
While Congress and the president squabble over funding to help provide basic care (claiming the US can't afford to provide such things as soap and toothpaste), people are suffering. Some have died while in US custody. All the while, a country that allegedly can't afford to care for its immigrants apparently can afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars so the president can play golf at one of his resorts every weekend. It can afford to send his daughter to a meeting of heads of state in Japan so she can pretend to be the secretary of state. It can afford to put on a massive parade to honor the narcissistic president as he campaigns for reelection, under the guise of honoring America's Independence Day.
This isn't patriotism. This is ripping off the American taxpayers who foot the bill for this homage to a president who will do anything for attention. This is politicizing our military. This is stealing money from the woefully underfunded National Park Service to help pay for this salute to a five-time draft dodger, a salute instigated by the draft dodger himself.
This year, more than ever, let us celebrate our country. Let us not forget the principles upon which it was founded: Justice for all. Equality. Equal rights. The pursuit of happiness. The poor should have the same rights as the wealthy. Women should have the same rights as men. Those who practice a religion different from Christianity should have the same rights to worship as do Christians. Gays should have the same rights as do straight people. Those with dark skin or from another country should have the same basic rights as do those with 'white' skin.
Regardless of our financial status, regardless of of our political leanings, regardless of our country of original, regardless of the color of our skin, we all are entitled to the same basic human rights. Giving rights to one group of people doesn't take rights away from others. But now, it seems, the wealthy, the political conservatives and the evangelicals are trying to take rights away from those who are different. This is not America. This is the result of a narcissistic, corrupt, morally bankrupt president and his followers.
As we celebrate the founding of the mightiest nation on earth, let us not forget the principles upon which this country was founded. We are better than this, America. Let us not forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment