The American Dream is a Lie.
Every great empire falls — here’s where we f*cked up.
My country ’tis of thee, land of hypocrisy, greed and corruption. America, what are you doing? The whole world is watching in horror as you flail around like a drunk bridesmaid at your best friend’s wedding. You’re messy, cheap and people mostly just feel sorry for you. Frankly, it’s embarrassing for all of us.
And, it’s no wonder why you can’t get your shit together, when the man you chose to lead you is about as qualified as I would be to preform open heart surgery. We need a real leader right now, someone to be the voice of reason, to inspire unity and peace, to offer some kind of reassurance to the rest of us that this ship is not in fact sinking while we rearrange the deck chairs. Instead, we have #45 in all his pasty, impotent glory posing for pictures with a Bible, the official playbook of the Evangelical voters he’s counting on to keep him around in November.
Can I be honest about something? I’m terrified that he’s not going anywhere. I don’t trust our electoral college to vote him out. I don’t trust that our votes count for anything, as they certainly didn’t in 2016. I don’t trust that people will show up to vote against him, and I don’t even trust that we will have an opportunity to vote at all at this point. A global pandemic sure seems like a great excuse to delay an election, if ever there was an excuse to do such a thing.
The way our elections work makes it impossible to elect a president who isn’t a Republican or Democrat, and at this point, what we really need is a moderate, independent leader who doesn’t have to pander to party lines and their respective special interest groups. There are so many things that need to change I can’t even begin to list them all, but just that one piece might help break up some of the bipartisan gridlock that keeps everything stuck and broken around here.
Our bipartisan system makes meaningful changes at the Federal level almost impossible, as there is very little middle ground. Agendas are set not by the constituents and things that matter to regular people, but by corporate dollars and lobbies. Our little voices only get heard if we scream in dollars and cents.
Money is god here, after all.
I mean, we still have regular religion, too. It’s all up in the government and pulling policy makers’ strings right along with the rest of the evil forces at work. It boggles my mind how anyone who claims to be a “Christian” could even for a moment justify the actions of our president — a man who called a porn star a horse face (or was it house mouth?) on twitter — and that’s probably the least slimy thing he’s ever done.
Trump’s blatant racism and misogyny are repulsive, he has done approximately zero positive things since taking the office of president, and has done absolutely nothing to offer any kind of leadership or direction for the American people through the worst year any of us has experienced in a long time.
Yes, we have first world problems here. I am aware that even with the social unrest, pandemic, recession and broken systems it could be worse. I just hope that we don’t have to find out firsthand how much worse things can get before we make it better.
I’m tired of turning on the news and seeing another senseless death. I’m tired of watching my friends of color grieve and live in constant fear that someone they love might be next to die at the hands of the men entrusted to protect and serve them.
I’m tired of people not calling out racism when they see it, and tired of all the excuses why they can’t stand up for what’s right.
Conflict is uncomfortable. I get it. It’s so much easier to distract ourselves with entertainment, numb out on whatever we like to medicate with or just blindly cling to whatever we were taught by our family, because if it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for us. Better to live a lie than rock the family boat, right?
Wrong — that’s what got us into this mess. Either we’re not paying attention at all, or we’re choosing to see the bullshit and look the other way. No more.
You’re on fire, America. Your people are so exhausted with your bullshit, they are ready to burn this place to the ground. Sadly, that’s probably the only way we can create real change now. We have to play the game your way and hit people in the pocketbook to get your attention.
Do we have your attention now?
It is time to defund and demilitarize law enforcement. It is time to fix the corruption at every level of the legal system. It is time to get really honest about why there are so many people of color in our prison system. This place was built on the backs of slaves, and when slavery was abolished, you found new ways to keep people small and weak, disenfranchised and unrepresented. The time to change this is now.
Your people need a better healthcare system, America. Whoever decided that American healthcare would be a for-profit industry was an evil genius and I hope he rots in hell (if there is one)for dreaming up a way for people to make billions and billions of dollars on the sickness and suffering of others. We need healthcare reform from bottom to top, starting with a one payer system that offers the same benefits to every single American person. (This means our legislators receive the same benefits as the people they are making decisions for.)
We need to revisit the entire FDA and investigate all the devices and drugs they have approved for human use, because many of them are known killers that we keep around because they bring in big dollars for doctors, hospitals and the manufacturers.
We need to stop treating patients according to what their insurance allows, and start treating them holistically — like an entire human being rather than a set of symptoms and diagnosis codes.
We need to make higher education available to everyone here regardless of their ability to pay for it. Look at the generation of young people now, scared to death of the crushing student debt that will be in their future if they choose to pursue a college education, and scared to death that they won’t be employable if they don’t.
Education is not a luxury, and in today's job market, it’s really not optional. No one should be denied the opportunity to go to college because of money — that’s elitist bullshit that keeps widening the wage gap in our country.
The happiest countries on earth understand that providing higher education and healthcare for their people automatically makes life better for everyone. When everyone has the resources they need to be healthy and productive, they are naturally more peaceful and happy. This is not fucking rocket surgery, America. If you can put a man on the goddamned moon, you can figure out how to meet the basic needs of your people.
You’ve got homeless men and women on the streets of every single city. Some of them are veterans who went off to war for you and came home broken. You thank them for their service by letting them starve in a ditch. Some of them are families who went bankrupt trying to pay for their healthcare in your busted ass system. Some are people like me who were born into poverty. It is only by some miracle that I escaped that trap, and I shudder to think of how many times in my life I should have been sleeping in my car or worse. It breaks my heart to know how many people die on the streets of Nashville every year while people in suits just step right over them on their way to our legislative plaza.
Can you even see them, America? Can you see your people dying? Can you see the suffering caused directly by your greed and corruption?
Can you see the black men being slaughtered by your law enforcement? Can you see the white supremacy at work? Do you even care?
I will not wave a flag for you, America. I will not sing the old war songs or ring the big bell for you until you wake up and fix what is broken here. You were built on the suffering of people you enslaved and tortured for generations. This is your karma, America, and you are getting what you deserve.
Your people are tearing each other apart, and it’s your own fault for valuing money and power more than human life.
Change is necessary, though quite uncomfortable at times. This is our great cosmic wake up call, our chance to stop clinging to what we know, the lies we’ve been sold, and the status quo. It’s not enough to point out all of the problems here and blame the right or left — they are both to blame. It’s time to find real solutions that help without hurting people.
Get your shit together, America. Your leaders are not leading. They’re just avatars for the corporate dollars that make your wheels turn. It’s time to put your people — all of your people — at the top of your priority list. Everything is crumbling for a reason, let’s rebuild this place on foundations love, empathy and some kind of ethical reasoning. Let’s choose leaders who will focus on the greater good instead of their bottom line.