The 4th of 2025
Tough this year. Kind of the definition of ambivalent.
I’m proud, in many ways, to be American. But today I am also ashamed, disheartened… and scared.
It’s not meant to be hyperbole. At this very moment, there are (for lack of a better term… how do we even label?) secret police rounding up people in the streets. Congress, the (supposedly) most powerful group of people in the country, has just passed legislation that a vast majority of Americans are against.
But today we’re celebrating democracy right? An indignation against solitary rule, a denouncement against despots with unilateral control.
Here’s what I’m proud of: in my experience in this country, most Americans are genuine, kind-hearted people. Most uphold righteous values of freedom, self-belief, and friendship. It’s not hard to make friends in this country, whether the big cities or the remote countryside.
I’m proud to be American because I believe most Americans are good genuine people. Americans have passed on a tradition of goodness and greatness through the generations.
Not to say every American that’s ever been is enlightened. We currently have racists and fascists and those who wish to burn the world down among us. And our history can never be erased or commuted, a history rampant with hatred and indifference.
But I like to believe that most of the 330 million of us are not a part of that. That the goodness, the good things, have transcended any evil inherited from the past.
I believe most present-day Americans are good people. They want to contribute to a better America and a better wold.
But that’s a call to action. It’s time for Americans to act, to decry the greed and callousness infested in our government. It’s time for true patriotism. It’s time for us to rise together and craft one big beautiful amazing country.
One country, for all of us. Despite and due to its vastness and diversity. With and for all its beauty.
I pledge my allegiance to the dream of America. So far we have not lived up to the dream. There are nightmares in our wake and the present. Can we start now?