Dear America,
I love you. I miss you. I recall growing up learning about the melting pot. It never made sense to me. Why throw everything together so that it must become “same”.
No, I yearned for the salad bowl – a mixing of all the different flavors and spices. Each and every one of us accepted for the diversity we would be expected to contribute. In my mind it would be frowned upon to be “same”; being the same would be “other”.
Unfortunately, America, you didn’t agree. In fact you couldn’t agree. You were too busy hiding your hurts in political correctness, soothing yourself in your commercialism and drowning in debt. America, I miss you… or I guess the idea of you.
I still lie awake at night and think about what you could be, what we could be if you would just tell the truth. You’re hurting. Your land is dying and so are your people. The blood of yester-years cries out from the ground, causing more to be shed.
We need to talk. Not just you and me, but all of us. We need to talk. We’re at war. Not with some foreign enemy, but right here on our home soil. It’s come to our front door. The casualties are LITERALLY piling up on our doorstep. We are at war.
The War on Drugs. The War on Terror. The War on Feminism. Race Wars. Gender Wars. I’d mention Star Wars, but… I digress.
The fact is America, we need to talk. I’m not here to hug and kiss and make-up. Far from it. I’m here to enlist you because a greater threat is coming and it’s coming from the inside.
Your families are already falling apart, but what happens if the numbers are true and by 2060 there are hardly any American families intact – nuclear, same-sex or otherwise?
Minorities and women are still scrambling for equal rights and equal pay; to know justice and know peace. But what if the U.S. Census is accurate and by 2020 the populations faring the worst in this country are now in the majority. We’re not just talking about a lack of family values, but economic sustainability.
Here were are turning people away today, but they will likely be the same ones turning us away tomorrow.
This is why I need you America. We need to talk, because until you face facts and heal from every facet of PTSD and PTSS that still lingers within you, you’re no good to me… or anyone. America, the war is not coming… it’s here.
When innocent children are shot in the streets and in their homes; when people can be slaughtered in schools, churches and malls; when women’s wellness clinics can be harassed and attacked – this is not the precursor for war, the war is here. And we must fight.
I’m not talking about violence. Im not talking about fear. Not all wars on won on literal battlefields. I’m talking about strategic infiltration. I’m talking about fortifying our present forces – our families, and preparing the next wave of reinforcements – the young ones who will lead us one day.
Imagine what could be different if there were adequate access and effective services for the clinically and mentally ill? What if resources existed to get them the help they needed BEFORE they harmed people? What if there were support systems for parents and teachers who wanted to help?
What if police officers were not only taught the tactical aspects of military training, but also the cultural sensitivity instruction that accompanies it? After all, for some officers certain neighborhoods are foreign territory.
What would happen if we provided programs to help heal the hurting, so perhaps they wouldn’t hurt others – physically, emotionally or otherwise. What if we made it possible for parents to be with their children? What if working ourselves to death wasn’t the greatest measure of success, but rather how well we’d lived, who we’d helped and how we loved?
America, I love you. I will always love you. But I can’t trust you. Your priorities are skewed and your -isms are showing. You can’t help anyone else until you help yourself. The thing is, I know you’re great… at least, you have the potential to be.
I guess I should say, I know that deep down, you have the potential to be great; to be everything I thought you could be once upon a time – and what so many people believe you already are.
America, please – if not for me, for your own sake – get well soon.