This is an article I wrote and put up on my blog: meusquaeroverum.blogspot.com
Let America Be America Again
This article isn't about being a Democrat or a Republican, nor is it about being Conservative or Liberal. This article isn't being on the right or the left. It's about being an American.
More and more these days, the poem "Let America be America Again," by Langston Hughes runs through my mind. Published in 1938 on the verge of WWII the poem rings as true now as it did then. Fighting racism, tyranny and corruption are the themes that Hughes talks about, about the American Dream and what has happened to it. He reminisces about the America that political attack ads and stump speeches constantly tell us is right around the corner.
More and more these days, America is falling apart, becoming bitterly divided. Partisan politics take their toll day by day. Both parties refuse to give an inch on any issue, resulting in Orwellian "Duck Speak" emanating from Washington and little actually getting done on either side of the aisle. Is it possible for us to get past this bitter divide and accomplish something? Is it possible to stop proposing laws to revitalize our base voters and propose reforms that revitalize our great nation?
The issues facing America today are not the same as those that America faced in the days of Langston Hughes, but the America facing the issues was. I ask America as Hughes did so long ago, where has the dream of every American gone? The dream of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," the dream that every immigrant who ever set foot upon our shores had before the harsh realities of the actual America crushed it.
What has happened to the America "Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme [nor] that any man be crushed by one above?" Surely that America would not approve of tax cuts that help mostly the rich by forcing cuts in services to the poor. And surely an America that is the "Land of the Free," should be free from debt to foreign countries and free from foreign oil.
No matter how you vote, America needs to see past the veil of Washington and realize that our government is failing as a democracy. America is not the America we think it is. America is a blundering giant with a $319 billion dollar trade deficit that is bogged down in Iraq. It's stuck in a war that is creating more terrorists than it's killing and turning our allies against us.
I ask America to rise up and search for the truth. America needs to demand accountability on both sides of the aisle. America needs to see past the propaganda and view the much darker world of reality. We need to ask tough questions to get down to what America has really become instead of what our bureaucratic rulers want it us to think it is. In this world we can no longer live in a fantasy where we are a thriving superpower immune to all problems. No one will ever know the true extent of how Orwellian society has become and never will until we finally search for the truth instead of listening to the lies and bitterness coming from both sides of the aisle.
A democracy is, by definition, divided and hard to govern. Its lack of a single, unquestioned leader is both our greatest strength and weakness. In times of trouble for America, we have united to save our country. The Union could not have won the Civil War if it allowed for any further rifts in the country. Franklin Delano Roosevelt forced Congress to compromise in order to end the Great Depression and win World War II. It seems that whenever America faltered, unity restored her.
And yet, as we slide further and further into debt and struggle in the Middle East, the partisanship and finger pointing continues. Both sides tell us that voting for them this November will save America. However, neither side will give us a frank answer to how they will turn us around or even what's going on in our bureaucracy right now. I ask America to end the partisan bitterness and demand the truth about what happened to our great nation. We need unity in order to move forward and we need transparency so that this government of the people can be seen by the people. Only in this way can we let America be America again.
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
-Langston Hughes