Because we are *still* Americans

[autographedcat]

folkmew asked, in a reply to smallship1:

If Bush is elected again how will I be able to say I'm an American to any of my friends overseas?

Because Bush isn't America.

Good, hardworking, decent folk all over the country are America. Honest, plain-spoken, determined people, both Democrats and Republicans, dedicated to the principles of freedom and justice are America. Helpful, compassionate, community-oriented people, in cities and on farms, are America.

When a neighbor reaches out to a neighbor, there you find us. When people pitch in together for the good of their families, their neighborhoods, and their communities, there you find us. When people do the right thing for no reason other than its the right thing to do, there you find us. When the law protects the individual from the mob, there you find us.

Bush and his crowd are just a passing thing, in the great wash of history. There are many ways, too many to list, where they are bad for us, and bad for the world, but they too shall pass, and the ideal that is America shall remain.

Because America isn't a man. It isn't a political party. It isn't an ideology.

America is a belief in a better future, in a rule of law, and in the idea that no matter how divided we become over matters of religion, race, or political ideology, we have the right and responsibility to peacefully work toward change.

Right now, the American Dream may be a bit tarnished. Sometimes its hard to see. Sometimes you can be so frustrated that you don't know how to go on.

But we will go on. We will go on working to ensure that the principles that made America an ideal do not vanish, do not falter, do not perish from the earth.

There's work to be done. And we will do it, no matter who sits in the halls of government. Because we are Americans. Even now. Even today.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I wish I could take comfort in this.

But I can't believe it. Not the important parts of it. First of all, America is made up of people, not ideas. The ideas have traditionally gone hand in hand with the people -- the peope nurtured specific ideas, which shaped the next generation of people. Only now the ideas held by a majority of the people are so alien to what American ideas used to be that I don't see any connection, nor any way to teach effectively so that the next generation gets them back. Especially since the ideas of hate and superstition and abandonment of responsibility are so much easier and more seductive than those of reason and tolerance and effort. I don't think the "work to be done" will ever work, and I'm *tired*. I don't want to break myself on a task that won't get anywhere. I'd break myself willingly if I thought it would genuinely turn America back into the country I love but I don't think it will. I don't think anything can.

I know I'm a coward. My instincts are more to flee than to fight, and I am so afraid of uncertainty that, like Kerry, I will defeat myself while there is still technically a chance, if it isn't a chance I can believe in my guts. I don't like that about myself, but it's true. Rule of law, the rights of the individual, government of the people, by the people and for the people, may have started with America but it's spread by now to other places. If the old home of freedom can no longer support it, I don't want to go down with the ship. I want to cling to one of its daughters, who remember better what America has forgotten about what values matter.

"The melody is over, but the echos linger on
In the seeds of life we planeted 'gainst the dying of the sun.
The echo's growing stronger, as it calls of Man's rebirth
And a score of worlds are singing now the songs of distant Earth."