Dear America...You're Such a Paradox

Dear America,

This is my love letter to you.  Every word is written in love.

Has anyone ever told you, O Land the I Love, that you are such a paradox?  Has anyone ever told you that  in this Sweet Land of Liberty, none are totally free?  Has anyone ever told you that this One Nation Under God all too often forgets who God is?  Has anyone ever told you that you are a paradox?

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident That All Men Are Created Equal...except the poor, the tired, the hungry, the homeless, the handicapped, the minorities, the gay, the pacifist, the dissenters, the jailed, the needy, the mentally ill, the ugly, the Christian, the Muslim, the Jew, the Buddhist, the Hindu, the weak, the activist, the quiet, the foreigner, the list goes on...

We Pledge Allegiance to One Nation Under God...Who is this God?  America, will you tell me?  Is it Mammon - the God of Money?  Is it Zeus - the God of Power? Is it a no-name carpenter who walked the dusty roads without a place to lay his head, relying on the generosity and hospitality of others, relying on his direct connection to the Father, who healed the sick, the lame, the demon possessed, who was murdered like a criminal in the most embarrassing way possible, but did not let death be the final story, who arose from the grave, who empowered millions in the past, who still empowers us today?  America, you tell me that is your God, but are you sure?  Did he kill?  Did he fight?  Did he hate?  Does he remember the sins of the past?  Does he destroy?  Does he over-consume?  Does he drop bombs?  Does he ignore? America, this surely can't be your God.

O Beautiful For Purple Mountains Majesty...unless there's something you want in that mountain.  Then it's not so beautiful anymore.  There are, as you say, more mountains.  Our Spacious Skies are storage bins for your pollution, our Amber Waves of Grain are plots on a map - places where you drill, baby, drill.  Our blue seas are uncharted territory, ripe with opportunity - places for you to take and not put back, places for you to leave worse than you found it.

You say you're a land of Liberty and Justice For All.  Who is all?  Answer this for me, America.  Surely you don't mean All.  Is it justice if all don't have the same rights?  You didn't say there were conditions to receive your justice.  You didn't say we have to look a certain way to receive your justice.  You didn't say we have to hold to one belief to receive justice.  You did say that Justice means Innocent Until Proven Guilty.  What is Proven, America?  Does it mean there is no doubt? Does it mean there is little doubt?  Does it mean that doubt doesn't matter?  Answer this, America.

You said Give Me Your Poor, Your Tired, Your Hungry - Did you mean it?  You couldn't have really meant it, could you?  Your poor are a disgusting stain that makes your clothes look filthy.  You could fix it, but you must like that stain.  Does it make your eyes glow?  Your tired and hungry in the land of abundance must be the ones to blame.  It's surely their own fault.  Survival of the fittest.  Kill or be killed.  That's what you really meant, America, right?  The Poor, the Tired, The Hungry try to come here.  Why do you welcome them in words but then arrest them?  Wasn't your God a stranger in a strange land?  Oh, wait...I was thinking of the one you only give lip service.

You are the land of the American Dream.  But dreams only happen during sleep...right?  Get a good education and you too can make it.  But statistics don't show that.  You want the best schools, but you won't pay for them.  You want the best teachers, but you blame them.  You want the best students, but you deny them.  Are your children not worth it?  Find a job and you'll make it.  That's what you told us.  What did you do with the jobs?  Why do you send them to other places?  You say it's good business.  When I question that, you call me Un-American.

You say I have the Freedom of Speech and Liberty - But that only means if I speak the company line, right?  Why do you call me a dirty red communist if I think we should share?  I always shared my toys.  Am I a communist for that?  You say if I want to make the poor people's life better that I'm a pathetic liberal.  If I question your wars, you say I'm just short of treason.  If I question your laws and decisions, you say I'm an anarchist.  If my friends don't look like me, you call me a fake.  If I Love My Neighbor As Myself, you call me a wimp.  Why do you say these things?

You have us yell "USA, USA!"  But what does that mean?  The U is for United.  If we are United why do you divide us?  Why is there us and them?  Why do you make us form little cliques?  Watch our little children play, America.  Maybe we can learn something together.  Something about unity.  Something about acceptance.  Something about justice.  Something about life.

O, America, you'll read this and say I hate you.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  I love you, America.  I want to help you, America.  I am from you, after all.  I want to work with you to make you the best America you can be.  I want to look at the flag with pride every time I see it.  Not just sometimes.

It is true, America, my real citizenship is not with you.  My real citizenship is in a place you claim to know.  Maybe you've heard of it.  Maybe you think you know it.  Maybe you really do know it.  I don't know.  But, you don't act like you know it.

I know you won't be perfect, America.  I can live with that.  Look at me.  I'm not perfect either.  We can be "not perfect" together.  It's like a journey.  But, can we try to help each other get a little better each day?  You can help me, and I can help you.  Let's both be less of a paradox. Can we try?

Love,
Me