July 4, 2015
Me: “Today we celebrate that we get to make our own choices, good or bad. (Insert short history of white people totally screwing the Native Americans.)
Emily: “That’s not fair.”
Billy: “Are we going to meet some of those people with white skin?”
Me: “We have white skin, Billy.”
Billy: “Oh.” Pause, then with horror: “You mean WE are those people?”
I think it must be difficult to be my kid sometimes. Billy hears things like, “Yeah, Billy, your mom’s a liberal.” (It isn’t a compliment.) For Emily it isn’t so bad — she has a mind of her own, and does not have any difficulty telling me when she thinks I am wrong. Also, she doesn’t care what her peers think, and cares more about justice than popularity. But she was told recently — by an adult she loves and respects — that she has been brainwashed to be pro-choice. No, I didn’t throat-punch anyone. (I wasn’t there.)
The issue that comes up for Billy, I think, is that some circles consider liberal-minded folk to be unpatriotic. “Unpatriotic” is the mild description; anti-military communist baby-killers is the spicier version of how we can be labeled. Obviously this characterization has no basis in fact. While I tend toward socialist attitudes about the have and have-nots in this country, that doesn’t mean I don’t believe wholeheartedly in the ideals upon which The United States of America was built.
For a long time, I misunderstood patriotism. I thought that because I was ashamed of so many of the actions of the white men who founded our government, and because I think that our country is flawed in so many vital ways, that I was not a patriot. What I didn’t understand, and what I believe is misunderstood by liberal-haters, is that these beliefs are what make me a patriot. I believe that the eloquent, idealistic, selfish, misogynistic, racist men — who fled their oppressors only to become oppressors themselves — created a beautiful document in the Declaration of Independence. They would go on to create another beautiful document in the Constitution of the United States of America. They were smart enough to know that they weren’t smart enough to know the future, and left options open for the American people to correct their many mistakes and shortcomings. They gave us power and agency. True patriots are ones who strive to improve our country by admitting to mistakes — past ones and present ones — and doing all they can to rectify them.
There are bad calls being made in the name of all of us. I want my children to understand that they have the right and duty to pay attention to what is being decided for them. I want them to have the intelligence and compassion to think about all Americans when decisions are being made. I want to be able to see them — and their generation as a whole — help the country make a course-correction before it’s too late.
If you have doubts that we are in trouble as a nation, look to the military. (See, I told you I wasn’t anti-military!) So many of the men and women on who have volunteered to be protectors of the people and land of the USA believe that one of the biggest threats to our country is right here, invading our hearts and minds and convincing people to anoint him king.
Wait, didn’t we declare our independence from a king?
Thanks for reading.
Love, Susie
Tell Emily to keep being herself with her own ideas. I’m also sorry you didn’t get to punch that twat in the throat.