We live in a country so backward that, despite its homophobic history, it cannot see straight.
The amount of problems we have is insane. If it’s not racism, it’s sexism, complete lack of gun control, immigration, or religious oppression. This does not include our questions about judgmental people, idiocy, misinformation, homophobia, corrupt leadership or the environmental crisis.
It’s embarrassing to be an American. People from other countries use it as an insult. It’s been 226 years since we got our independence and we still haven’t grown up.
Before all you bootlickers start “Go ahead and go,” let me remind you – I wouldn’t be here in the first place if it weren’t for your wild ancestors. Who will pay for me, my family and community to leave and renounce our citizenship? And why is criticism of our country met with hate, as if criticism of the government is not what this country was founded on?
America has politicians and citizens who believe that protesting for equality for all is worthy of being killed by a policeman. However, they consider a rebellion with bombs and guns as patriotic. Some people are still convinced that the 2020 election was stolen all because Donald Trump, an alleged rapist and admitted misogynist who thinks it’s okay to “grab women by the scruff of the neck,” told them so. Yet they have no words for Trump’s suspicious ties to Russia during the 2016 election. During the uprising, it was American citizens who wore “6 million wasn’t enough” or “Camp Auschwitz” shirts in reference to the Holocaust.
In America, wombs are less protected than guns, and tragic school shootings are common. The U.S. is a place where teachers are paid an average of $32,496 a year, according to ZipRecruiter, but they’re also expected to be child protective services agents, babysitters and armed soldiers.
It’s a place where police can kill unarmed black people. The police have killed them by shooting them 60 times for running away and kneeling on their necks for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. All because they “feared for their lives”. But in Uvalde, Texas, we see police running in fear and standing around for 90 minutes during a mass shooting.
The United States, where even in the middle of a pandemic, people found a way to racialize COVID-19 and blame the Asian and Pacific Islander communities, but they won’t wear a mask or get vaccinated.
Men in this country argue over rights to use body parts they don’t have, instead of working to improve our maternal mortality rate, which is the worst among developed countries. This country is so divided on abortion, people debated whether a 9-year-old rape victim should be forced to deliver a baby.
This country where our government chooses to ignore the climate crisis despite science warning us that we don’t have much time.
This country was built on stolen land but has a problem with immigration. All of our land was taken from other people – not only from indigenous peoples of the continental states, but even possibly illegally possessing Hawaii due to the lack of an annexation treaty. This is a place where the prison system is modern day slavery and houses 25% of the world’s prison population. America’s general population is only 5% of the world’s total.
I hope that one day we can grow up and get together. The things that separate us, like racism, sexism, and bigotry, would often be eliminated with compassion, empathy, and knowing how to mind our business. We don’t have much time. It’s time to do better.
