The Un-United States of America

artist unknown

I grew up in a family of proud Americans.  Most of the men in my family served, fought and some died for it.  My mother and fore-mothers worked hard to instill respect and even relief that I had been lucky enough to be born in it. Public school educated me to the 'Great American Melting Pot' and Christianity reinforced that I lived in a country of 'God, church, and Love Thy Neighbor'.  I grew up thinking I lived in a noble place, a free land, a land comprised of a humanity which lived, loved and worked towards a common goal.  A democratic Utopia where people had an opportunity to rise based on nothing more than dedication, character and hard work.  Where individuality was protected and everyone had the right to live as they choose.  Under the wing of "All Are Created Equal" I was indoctrinated into the "This is the Land of Brotherhood" cult from birth despite the glaring evidence that confused the hell out of me growing up.

Well, I'm a grown-assed woman now; a wife, a mother and an American, and I call "bullshit".  Because that's not where I live.  It never was and it never has been.  Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, the America I was spoon-fed was a huge lie.

Let me tell you where I now find myself.  I live in the un-United States of "Us Against Them" Land co-mingled with "We Are All Equal" Nation.  And it's not very nice here today.  In fact, shit is hitting the fan in a slow-motion, downhill plunge and today it's a frightened, pain-filed, grieving country heading towards a catastrophic collision which could land us squarely into "What the Fuck Have We Done Land?" if we don't wake the hell up right-freaking-quick.

In the past two years America has gotten heated and everything noxious has boiled to the surface in all the glorious/rancid colors of a nation comprised of sects, cliques, clubs, parties, boundaries, labels and tags sprinkled with healthy dashes of ignorance, compassion, prejudice, love, fear and hope.

Here, if you're complacent, too busy, or lazy and don't think for yourself, religion, Politics, and television are just waiting to tell you who to love/trust and who to hate/fear.  Pro's and con's thrive on both sides of every issue, empowered, optimistic and 100% sure their way is the RIGHT way.  Men and women smile proudly under "Make America White Again" banners as they blow adoring kisses to greedy, man-boy racist, misogynists while across the ropes loud, proud sisters and brothers proclaim equality and march to chants of "Humans of the World Unite".  Here people feel their right to be 'right' is more important than human life while others fight and die for the rights of others to live as they choose.  It's a place where those who are supposed to protect us shoot too quickly and those actually trying to protect us are callously shot dead.  Where children walking down the street are viable targets and gated communities are heavily-patrolled, homogenized fortresses.  It's a land where bigots can exchange white robes for black ones and white/blue collars who shriek for WWIII scream and rail against having to pay taxes that might go to feed orphans, widows and veterans while others give away their lives to care for the hungry and disenfranchised.  Where greedy, self-serving partisans sell basically anyone not white, male and rich into a quagmire of inescapable poverty while others are working their asses blind to bring change, build houses and educate the populace.  It's a land which sanctions separatism in red (blood), white (skin) and blue (lineage) while striving towards unity in red (valor), white (innocence) and blue (justice).

Here people cling more tightly to their right to bear arms than they do to the right of children to live safely.  It's a place where damn near everything is for sale and the media is carefully cultivated to whip the unthinking, under-informed masses into a constant state of panic that 'someone' is going to 'steal' what little they have in an effort to distract them from the real thieves because in this place ignorance, prejudice and panic are manipulated like pieces on a chess board by hands reaching from the safety of hallowed, white halls into the hearts of human lives struggling to survive long enough to pay for the rings gracing those fingers.

Given all this confusion, it's easy to understand why it is a country whose population is rapidly loosing sight of being human.  It has become a warring, seething land of Black, White, Law Enforcement, Citizen, Gay, Straight, Lower Class, Middle Class, Upper Class, Christian, Non-Christian, Republican, Democrat factions which cannot seem to rest easy with the fact the other sides live and breathe.  It is a country which indoctrinates instead of educates, afraid its people will realize the hollow, hopeless battles they are fighting are doing nothing beyond destroying themselves and their children.  

So, no, this was never the country we were told it was.  But it's to one we have and there is a chance we could be headed that way.  Because whether we like it or not something different is being born.  A problem isn't a problem until you realize it's a problem, right?  Well, here you go.  We've rolled belly up and sky-high in a perfect storm of past sins and present misdeeds, exposing a reeking weakness of character which is being played out on the world stage instead of whispered out of the sides of smiling mouths.  Our make-up has come off, boys and girls, and all our ugly, segregated imperfections are right there where only the most intentionally blind person can pretend otherwise.

For all these flaws and failings America was a nation fashioned from the longing for integrity, freedom, individuality, justice and equality.  With this energy she gave birth to her first child through blood, battle and fire.  Yet by denying those rights to all the members of our country we narrowed down our sights, started making labels and forgot all that.

Call me an optimist, but I honestly recognize these as birthing pains.  Change comes from pain and right now after centuries of abuse, misuse, lies, repression and rape from within America is a compromised, battered, bartered lady pregnant with the need to bring something different into the world.  And we have a obvious resource which could shape the outcome and end this insanity in a way that would help us to our feet and onto a righter, truer path this time.  We the PEOPLE.  That's right.  US.  No labels.  No tags.  Be proud of who you are and where you came from, but retain the ability to look at life as human beings FIRST; fathers, mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, wives, husbands, lovers, friends, daughters, sons, sisters and brothers.  Because before the tags and labels slapped onto our chests we belonged to one race; the human race.

Of course, the problem with this is we might grow uncomfortable only applying this vital fact to those born within our boarders.  Because if Americans are human beings that would mean so are those biped mammals to the south of us.  And so are those to the west of us.  And the East.  Holy hell, we might just be forced to realize the people we are swapping shots, bombs and droning off the face of the earth are...

But how better to blur the lines used in the repression and killing of our children than to refuse to feed the machine?  No label.  No line.  An African American man is shot and killed without cause and you're a white, suburban mom?  No.  You are a human being and a mother.  Just like the woman who is being told her child is dead.  A young, white girl is raped and murdered and you're an Asian American dad?  No, you are human being and a father.  Just like the father who now has to identify the body of his child.  A cop is killed in the line of duty and you're a blue collar worker?  No.  You're a husband/wife and a mother/father trying to make a living for your family and do the right thing.  Just like the person on the cold, hard slab who left behind a spouse and a small child.

Right now, this country is being drawn and quartered by her own people. Obedient to our masters, we've gotten so good at narrowing down the right to live to smaller and smaller segments of the world population we have actively poisoned our own well to the point that the sludge is undrinkable.  Our country is being torn into a million bleeding pieces, staggering in this toxic waltz of our savagely defended us and them mentality.  And us?  We're being played like a rigged carnival game.  Why?  Because if we drop the labels and the lines, there is NOTHING LEFT TO DIVIDE US.  God forbid we wake up and move against those who have bought and sold pieces of this world back and forth for centuries.  We might actually wind up with the country we were told we had.