Fight or flight are the two responses to stress. What defines a progressive is how she responds. A progressive sees problems and she fights them. She doesn't close her eyes and ignore problems. She doesn't run away from them. She doesn't immigrate just so that she can leave ignorance and violence behind. If she did, she would have to move to another planet.
I am an immigrant in the US. I intend to go back to my country for a number of reasons, but none of them include Americans being dumber or more violent than other nations. Neither did I immigrate to the US because where I came from was full of stupid people or because I hated the country. Immigration is not necessarily running away, there are so many reasons to move to a different country, and so many reasons to leave one. A progressive does not leave the fight, she takes her fight where she goes.
I've lived in several countries. I've lived in a "third world" country. I've lived in a European country. I've lived in the US. I've stayed for months in other countries, although I wouldn't call those times "living in a country", they were more like visits. Now I'm about to move to one of the poorest countries in the world. It's a country full of poverty, ignorance, discrimination and disease. Yet, I am excited. And when my time in that country is over, I will go somewhere else. I am trying to go back to my home country, where I grew up because I have much left to do there. I know that I can contribute and give much more. There are also personal reasons, but my fight is there and that's a big part of it. That's where my responsibility is. That's where my cause is.
But living in other countries, and in the US for so long, I've learned so much. I love this country. I say this sincerely. I care about its future. I couldn't care more if I were an American. I like its idiosyncracies, its culture, its pancakes and its beautiful, good people who made my life richer since I stepped out of the plane.
I've liked every country I've been to. I'm not blind to their faults. I see every injustice. I am a political animal, I see the stupidities in their political systems. Now, listen. There is no perfect country. There has been bloodshed in every country. Wars, murders, genocides are as old as human history. There has never been a time without poverty. There has never been a perfectly equal society. There will always be reactonaries. There will always be powerful groups that profit from the status quo, even though the status quo harms the majority of the population. There was always exploitation and ignorance. Dumb and greedy people always start wars. Women have been beaten and gays have been hidden since the dawn of history. There never was a golden period for the poor and exploited. Discrimination is the rule, not the exception.
The progressive is never happy for she sees these things and wants to change them. She wants the perfect world, a world with no wars, no discrimination, no poverty and no inequality. She wants a world where society is like a family, and where we take care of the less fortunate. She wants a world where science and art are cherished, a world where the biggest item on the budget is not the military but education.
The progressive is never happy, not in America, not in France, not in Egypt, not in Israel, not in Kazakistan, not in Argentina, not in Somalia. She aches. She knows a better world is possible. She doesn't know how exactly. So she spends her life figuring it out. She volunteers, donates and campaigns. She writes letters, talks to friends. She buys energy saving bulbs and rides the bus. She goes into politics. She works for NGOs. She becomes an educator, a lawyer, she writes, she sues the government, she organizes demostrations, she demans accountability, she votes. She follows the news and refuses to accept official story lines. She knows a better world is possible, so she aches when she sees this very imperfect world.
You cannot escape this imperfect world. There is injustice in every country. Try being a minorty in any country. Try being a devout Muslim in a Christian country, and feel the hateful gaze. Try being a visible Christian in a Muslim country, and live the discrimination. Try being a gay anywhere and feel the heartbreak of not being accepted. Be a woman and learn the fear of walking alone in the dark, not getting the same pay as your colleague, not being taken seriously, not being able to choose your spouse. Try being poor. It is an imperfect world. It is a miserable world. It is an unjust world.
But it is also a world full of possibilities. So the progressive does not despair. That's what makes her a progressive. She knows progress is possible. She knows she can make the world a better place, just a tad better, but better. So she fights, wherever she is, however she can. She helps in whatever way possible. She dreams. If she didn't, there'd still be slavery. if she didn't there's still be child labor in every country. If she didn't, factories wouldn't be filtering their waste. There'd be no public education. Gays would be in prison for being gay. She looks back and gets inspiration from the past progress. She knows that as imperfect as people are, they are also capable of amazing goodness.
She rememers that progressive who said he had a dream and shared his dream with her. She, too, has a dream. She has many dreams. She knows it's not that American people are dumber, or more violent. They're just imperfect, like other nations in their own unique way. There is only one way to be perfect, but so many different ways to be imperfect. Americans are no better, or no worse than other peoples. Better educated than most, more ignorant than some. With a government that is better than most in many respects, worse than some in many respects and worse than many in some respects. It is just so.
So the progressive fights to make her home, neighborhood, her town, her state, her country and her world a better place. She doesn't close her eyes, she doesn't run away. She goes wherever life takes her and seeing imperfections (first her own), but not belittling the imperfect, she fights wherever she lands. To make this imperfect world just a little more perfect.