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We have approached yet another Independence Day (Happy July 4th!)! A day where I try to unabashedly be patriotic by grabbing ice cream with friends and catching the tail end of some nearby town’s firework show. I try not to cringe at the volume of American flags, knowing they are not American flags in a cute, coastal grandmother kind of way, but in an undying love for the “greatest country in the world” kind of way. I love the U.S., it’s the only place I’ve ever called home, but if you were to ask me where my allegiance lies, my first answer would probably be New Jersey, not the country it resides in.
The way I feel about America is very much in line with this James Baldwin quote: “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” It’s like how a coach treats their team. You offer feedback, you tell them where they’re weak and need to improve, and, depending on the type of coach you are, you may get angry about it. But only you can do that. If someone else, some unruly parent, some other coach, decides they want to criticize them too, you don’t let them.
Hearing other people, who’ve never spent substantial time in the U.S., claim that the country is full of stupid and fat people immediately makes me tune out. You’ve only read the headlines, buddy. I will never be the type of person who endlessly praises America with blind patriotism. This country has so many problems, and depending on who wins this upcoming election, the problems are only going to expand and multiply. (I’m afraid we’re just gonna have to vote for the corpse, folks!)
There are a few heavy hitters with the U.S. that tick me off. The first of which is its adoration of capitalism. Capitalism is truly the root of all evil and America loves it anyway. Anything that can make us more money, we do, even if it's completely detrimental to the human beings on the other side.
It’s lucrative to sell people who don’t have any money risky mortgages, so what do we do? We put the entire housing market up on stilts (that inevitably end up collapsing and sending the entire country into economic ruin) to line the pockets of greedy Wall Street bankers and mortgage brokers. (I’m in my era of rewatching The Big Short clips on YouTube.) It’s lucrative to make people, especially women, feel insecure in their bodies. By doing this, we can make billions of dollars off diets and beauty products so they will always be chasing the elusive, proverbial carrot. It’s lucrative to sell clothing, but not enough, so we’ll pay people next to nothing to produce it to expand our profit margins. It’s lucrative to my campaign to be pro-gun, regardless of the safety of our kids. I’ll send out some thoughts and prayers if when another school shooting happens.
Billionaires are good and hardworking; poor people are bad and lazy. But don’t mind the little coincidence that the poorer people get, the richer others get. It’s almost as if the two things are undeniably linked!
The second heavy hitter is our individualism. Nothing is worth anything if it's not “self-made,” even though the concept is ridiculous considering that no one could accomplish anything completely alone. We make people feel that as long as they’re making more/have more opportunities/a nicer house/cleaner streets than someone else, then at least they’re not at the bottom of the totem pole. We look at other countries and wonder why we can’t have the same nice things (cleaner streets, better social programs, etc.). The answer is racism and classism!
If the poor people have nice things, then the rich feel like they’re not being afforded the benefits of being financially better off. If the immigrants have nice things, then the citizens feel like they’re being slighted. If the Black folks have nice things, then the white people feel like they’re being oppressed by their race. This is because we’ve been taught this. We’ve all heard the refrains: they’re taking our jobs! they’re infiltrating our schools! they’re taking what’s rightfully ours! Have we stopped to consider that there’s enough to go around, and this idea of scarcity is a scare tactic? If the powers that be keep you distracted over that one crumb you’re fighting over, then maybe you won’t notice that they’re munching on the whole damn loaf.
I can hear the naysayers now: well, if you don’t like it here, then leave! what, do you want everything handed to you? this is just what happens in a diverse country. I have discovered over the years that the country we are living in has been constructed this way for a reason. And the reason was to keep the WASP men powerful and rich and to make everyone else feel like they’re fighting to be in the club. But just as this country was built, it can be torn down and built again. We can go back to the drawing board and create a country that treats all human beings with dignity.
What would be so bad about being handed things? Basic things, like housing and healthcare. What would be so bad about that? Besides the fact that it wasn’t handed to you. We’ve convinced ourselves that if we had to struggle for something, then everyone else should have to struggle too. But you shouldn’t have had to struggle in the first place, and neither should they. Your anger is pointing in the wrong direction.
It’s like when people complain about fat people advocating for larger seats on planes. You’re so busy calling them fat and telling them they should be losing weight to fit into the (entirely too small) seats to realize that larger seats would actually be better for everyone!! (And the plane seats are so small so that the airlines can fit more butts in seats, which makes them more money and brings us right back to the evils of… capitalism!)
I think America really could live up to the dream we’ve touted for so long. But it’s not there now, and pretending it is only halts the progress that could be made. So… Happy Independence Day! I will hopefully catch the tail end of some fireworks tonight, and inevitably have to hold my tongue when someone unironically makes the claim that America is the greatest country in the world. We are surely not looking at the same thing!