If I felt like tracing my ancestor’s journey to America, I would find that my mother’s side arrived somewhere in the 1800s with my father’s side about a century-and-a-half earlier, somewhere in the 1600s. There’s an ancestor of ours buried in Bruton Parish in Williamsburg, Virginia with the tombstone stating they passed away in the 1630s. I say this not to add legitimacy to my “Americanism,” but to show that this is not something new for my family. We’ve been proud Americans for quite some time now. But that right there…that is what I’m struggling with as I write this: pride, especially when it relates to being an American.
Things are rough here in the United States as I write this. We lead the world in Covid-19 deaths. We continue moving forward without flattening the curve. There is a constant stream of social media videos where people either violently refuse to wear masks in public or they throw child-like temper tantrums as they refuse to respect social distancing. Our police departments continue to beat peaceful protestors on a regular basis WHILE ON CAMERA.
Shit sucks right now. But what has made things even more difficult is not just the present. As I did research on the Civil War for my previous article, I saw how much of American history is full of white folk being total pieces of shit to anyone not white…hell even total pieces of shit to other white people, too! I used to consider myself pretty damn patriotic but it’s true what they say: ignorance is bliss. Before I knew the REAL history of our country, I would gladly stand and salute any time I heard Lee Greenwood belt out “Proud to be an American.” Might have even teared up a little. Now though…I hear patriotic music and it makes me think about all these transgressions. And I found out Lee Greenwood is a dick.
I keep hoping that perhaps this country will correct this. The folks with common sense will rise together and fix these issues and we’ll move forward and become a country we can all be proud of. Then we get news that the current douche bag in the Oval Office is going to strongly push for schools to be reopened this fall. We see that our cases of Covid-19 continue to rise. We see people who shared conspiracy theories that the virus was fake and refused to wear masks or social distance themselves are now dying from infection. We are literally learning nothing as a country and are a joke to the rest of the world. They’re not allowing Americans to visit Europe! This is really bad, y’all. We’ve become the dirty, disgusting cousin no one wants to be around at the Earth family reunion. It’s so bad they won’t let us replicate that Griswold European trip!
This is my current struggle: trying to find hope in the country I love. I’m not going to make the privileged statement of “this is not the America I know.” It is America. You can’t discount other people’s experiences because you didn’t have to feel the same struggle. As I write this article and unravel how I feel about all of this and what I think the solution may be, I keep coming back to one word: empathy. That’s what we’re missing. Is the trend of people blowing off science for wackjob conspiracy theories disturbing and downright frightening? Sure is. But at a base level, if we had more empathy for each other, if we actually concerned ourselves with how others feel, what they’re having to go through in this pandemic, this might really be over a lot sooner. I know that some have framed this anti-mask bullshit as “fighting for my rights” but it’s just a selfish, dick move. It just shows that they don’t care about anyone but themself. They’re willing to put others at risk over a small inconvenience to themselves. A simple cloth mask is NOT going to make you pass out or increase your C02 levels or any other nonsense that is being spewed. But it will however decrease the possibility of spreading the virus if you’re infected. It decreases the chance of you getting it from someone else. We’re not talking gas masks here, a bandana will do. A neck gaiter will suffice. Give a shit about other people shouldn’t be this hard of a concept for everyone to adopt.
I want to be proud to be an American again, and I see flashes of hope. One of the thing that makes this country great is our ability to come together when things are at their worst. During World War II, this happened. We saw men and women enlist, we saw those who couldn’t serve work in factories building vehicles and equipment. The country pulled together. After 9/11 happened we came together. People united to show their love of this country. Yes, I know there were awful things that happened during those eras, too but now we have clarity. We know that how we treated Japanese Americans during WWII was a travesty. We know how we treated Muslims post 9/11 was abhorrent. But here is what is different this time around: we see it. With all the awful things in our country going on simultaneously, we can make a concerted effort to come together and NOT make those same mistakes of the past.
Now we have a much more difficult task ahead of us: find a way to lower the cases of coronavirus and ensure the health and safety of our citizens. On top of that: dismantling systemic racism in policing, the justice system, and other government institutions. And, since I brought up 9/11, let’s talk about something else it’s time to do. Let’s lower those bloated police force budgets that we all agreed was a good idea in the wake of the terrorist attack. It’s been 20 years. There hasn’t be an external terrorist attack on this country since then. However…we’ve had plenty of domestic terror attacks in form of mass shootings. Our priorities need to change. Our empathy needs to increase. We need to give a shit about each other and make that an American principle. MAGA? No. LGASAP: Let’s Give A Shit About People.
Eww, Politics 