Towards a more perfect union

When a Nation cries

His tears fall down like missiles from the skies

Justice looked into Independence's eyes

Can you make everything alright?

And can you keep your old Nation warm tonight?

~~ “Justice and Independence ‘85” by John Mellencamp

This morning, an article popped up in my feed. It was titled “Is Patriotism Possible in Trump’s America?”, written by Jesse Berney for Rolling Stone. I highly recommend reading it. I was so struck by it that I posted it on Twitter and Facebook, and judging by the likes and retweets (including from the author), it struck a chord in others, too.

The premise is that many of us are feeling demoralized at what is happening in our country right now. We feel we have someone holding the highest office in the land who is neither qualified or intelligent or stable enough to hold that office. It’s kind of hard to be patriotic when you feel like an Ugly American, you know?

But the article states exactly WHY it is important for us to love our country. We want to see it do well, but we also want to make sure that we continue to work towards equality and justice for all. We want to see people get a hand up when they need it, and we want to see people held accountable when they do harm to others or to our country, no matter their status.

I’ve never been the type who was “my country right or wrong.” We’ve done plenty of horrible shit in our time and there was nothing ‘right’ about it at all. Because we care, we work towards progress. We work for fairness and we work for justice. We are and always have been a work in progress...an effort towards a “more perfect union.”

I’m tired of being labeled as unpatriotic because of my criticisms of the current occupant of the White House. Or of the Bush administration, which misled the American people and got us into a stupid war. (All wars are stupid, although some are justified, but that is one of the stupidest.) I’m tired of being told that I need to “respect the office.” How about this? I’ll start respecting the office again when HE does. This guy is one of the worst things to happen to the office, to the presidency, and to the world. I will never stop saying that.

I am a patriot. I love my country for the good it has done and can do in the world. I love it for our great achievements, our innovation, and our innate sense of goodness. (I still believe that.) We are experiencing a pretty serious glitch right now, but I am confident that we will fix it. 

Happy birthday, America. If I criticize you, it is only because I want to keep fighting to make you better for everyone and to make you continue to show the world that we are a force for good, not for ill. I haven’t given up on us yet and I hope the rest of the world won’t, either.