I am a corny American citizen that cries when I sing "This Land is My Land" and God Bless America.I stand with my hand over my heart when the Star Spangled Banner is sung because I really do love this land as my own.Long car rides when my children were young were spent singing old American patriot songs because I really wanted them to know this is their land .No kings or royalty no man better than another and endless possibilities for their futures.The last decade was rough for me and to tell you the truth I went through the motions but in my heart I felt little pieces chipping away from shame and disappointment in my America.Today I feel like my America is returning to me .It feels good.
The election that I am supposed to get over was the start .When the greatest act of judicial activism in our nation's history awarded the presidency to Bush I was stunned and actually went through the stages of grief wasn't aware of it at the time but that is exactly what it was.
Then 9/11/2001 happened and I thought okay maybe we can heal for those lost that day.I went to work volunteering and that benifitted me more than any recipient of my efforts. I asked what I could do for my nation and that felt great when I did it because I was one of many.
War in Afghanistan meant do a USO drive. My nephew was there and I looked at all of our military as my nieces and nephews.Americans responded with resounding results. I could ignore what I hated and delve into something for America again so it was tolerable.
I watched as the 109th Congress started with the patriot act, bankruptcy bills,credit cards deregulations, and universal credit and I became obsessed with blogging. I was losing those wars and the rage set in again.
The rhetoric started about Iraq and I was stupid enough to actually believe "this will never happen Americans will never fall for this crock of manure we just don't scare that easily "We all know what happened and the little belief I had sunk into a tar pit of blind rage.I went to Washington D.C. and protested when there were no cameras or crowds. I was heartsick. I went again .I put an ACLU bumper sticker on my car and another from the PFTAW that said STOP THE IRAQ WAR and I AM A CONSTITUTION VOTER. I was told I was many things by strangers in places like the COSTCO parking lot and at my church. None of them were complimentary .I stopped going to that church and have never donated to them for anything again.
Good things happened as well. This place became important. Keith Olbermann and CBS started to show some ugly truths and little by little our media started to grow a part of a spine again. The Washington Post and the NY Times had a few page 6 articles that were daring to question the Bush administration. IAVA started and they were telling the soldiers stories .I hosted a viewing of their CD on the Iraq War and literally watched as a 50 year old reservist, who has served there, almost had a nervous breakdown in my home while viewing the Iraq Files Video. I watched as his fellow soldiers took him outside in my front yard and loved him as a brother and gently calmed him down.
The rest of this story is chronicled here on this website perhaps better than anywhere else. The American people spoke and we elected new representation and Barack Obama as our president.
I was not foolish enough to think very thing that could be done to derail this man would not be done. It was worst than I ever imagined but somehow here we are at the threshold of historic change in our largest economic issue of our time-health care.Is this what I wanted ?No I wanted Medicare for all. Do I think this is what I voted for -no not exactly.
I go back a long way to civil rights protesting and protesting the Viet Nam war .Forrest Gump the movie cited my youth quite well. I have been beat down and built back up again by events and people I have shared them with. Many of those people were strangers in name but siblings at heart.
Now I see this health care reform starting to become a reality .I am caught in a surreal state of not beleiving what is happening yet knowing that I had a small part in creating a big thing. I live a small life but for a few when I pass it will not be a huge loss.I am fine with that,Not many of us are ever famous but once in a while we get to be a part of a big deal and I sense that this is one of those times.
I feel like I can start to sing those old patriot songs again. I can only imagine what the real patriots who started this nation when they realized they had won Independence and looked ahead at making those goals they laid out in that Declaration realities. They were built up and beat down and had to rally back to win the good fight. That is what we are doing in these times.I refuse those who say kill the bill to call themselves patriots for they serve the corporate kings and queens just as the Tories did in our nation's birth.
They have never fooled us long enough to kill our spirits and that is why this land is our land.I forget that sometimes and then someone comes along and leads us back into our historic courage and beleifs that all men are created equal and we do have those inalienable rights to pursue a better life one by one forming a united nation. Throwing tea disguised as Indians was not the finest moment of this nation it was those farmers who walked miles with their young sons with no guns ready to fight with picks and axes for freedom. Some want to emulate the tea party complete with the disguises for there self interest and old english feudal society. More of us fight armed with nothing but our words and moral compass that refuse to allow our neighbors go without while we sit fat and happy. We are the real patriots. Those who are trying to frighten us away from the greater good need not to look to far back in history to realize history always repeats itself and they lose.
Meanwhile I say we have a long way to go but we do have a start in the right direction. Anyone who marched for civil rights and now speaks the words President Obama realizes that. Those who remain in the old southern state of mind are right -they are losing their nation. The rest of us hated their ways so we eliminated them. We are doing the same thing now in health care.
This land really is my land and your land. We rise together and we fall together. This is a moment when we begin to rise as real Americans again with liberty and justice for all not just those that can afford it.America just may getting a bit more beautiful .To tell you the truth it feels good to feel this way again.