This Land was Made for You AND Me

The first semester of my bachelor’s degree in history, I took a political science course from a very angry professor. Most of his lectures involved yelling, and lots of choice words. I’ll never forget the first day of class.

“Who in here thinks America is the greatest country on earth?” He asked. He was mad, and his anger was clearly in need of a target.

No one raised a hand. I was astonished. I thought, “Maybe everyone is just too afraid to talk in class. Maybe they’re afraid of how he’ll respond.” I felt like I had to say something. I hate it when that happens. When I can’t keep my big mouth shut.

Like now.

 My heart raced. My breathing grew short. I raised my hand. He pointed to me, glaring.

“Why?!” He commanded my answer.

 “I like our democracy. I like that we can elect the people we want to lead us.” I uttered, channeling the founding fathers. 

 “What about all the other democracies in the world?” He (literally) yelled, looking like someone just punched his mom. 

I hunkered down in my seat. “Good point,” I said quietly. Defeated.

“What?!”

“Good point.” I said, even quieter. He shook his head and continued on with his lecture.

My adrenaline was pumping. My ears were ringing. I stood up for what I believed in, and I was tarred and feathered. To be honest, I never really thought of other democracies until that point. I was always told America was the beacon for the world, the city on a hill. Don’t get me wrong, that guy was a douche, but I learned a lot in his class. Yet after all the many ways in which my beliefs have changed, and boy have they changed, I know what I would say now. I would say America is the greatest country to me. America is my home. America is my family. America is my blood, and just like most families, mine has its flaws. We have the senile grandparents, and the uncle who can’t keep himself from dropping political bombs on thanksgiving dinners (turns out that uncle is me). But this is my family nonetheless, and I don’t turn my back on my family. America is my home, and my home was built upon a foundation. A foundation of equality. A foundation of freedom. A foundation upon which all people have the chance to build happy lives for themselves and their families, no matter where they come from, or the color of their skin, or their religion.

Now, I have to steal from MLK, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.” Our founders knew that those beliefs were indeed a foundation. A foundation to “form a more perfect union.” Because this union isn’t perfect. It wasn’t then, and it isn’t now. The foundation is down, yet the house is far from finished. But as long as we strive to keep building on our foundation, then we will move closer to the America that I envisioned when I pledged allegiance every morning in elementary school—the America that had enough room for different opinions, different beliefs about god and money, different languages and different national origins.

The great American melting pot.

I’m writing this post because I believe some people have hijacked a love for country and staked sole authority of it. They say they’re the ones who will make America great again, and anyone else can get out. I’m writing this post to say that the red, white, and blue belongs to me too. I'm writing this because this land was made for you and me. I’m writing this to say that I believe this truth to be self evident:

America is great because we can speak different languages, have different religions, come from different chunks of rock, and live free together. Just because Westboro Baptist Church protests funerals doesn’t mean that all baptists are Westboro Baptists. Just because the KKK was and is full of white southern men doesn’t mean that all white southern men are like the KKK. Just because a disenfranchised group of murdering, power hungry, angry ass holes who say they are Muslims are trying to fill a power vacuum doesn’t mean that all Muslims are murdering, power hungry, angry ass holes.

There are some people who say they want to make America great, and yet it is some of those very people that are spitting in the face of the very ideals that gave America its greatness. I will not divide us up by language, national origin, sexual orientation, skin color, or religion. I stand with my peace loving Muslim brothers and sisters, and I proudly fly the red, white, and blue. I stand with my LGBT brothers and sisters, and I proudly fly the red, white, and blue. We are all Americans.

And when someone who says making America great is to piss on the values that it was built upon, I’m going to raise my hand and speak.