Blog Post Title One
I love the United States of America. I am not concerned about what others think about this feeling that I have. This is what I think specifically, for myself. One can interpret an emotion towards Uncle Sam as performative, narcissistic or as a dog whistle towards patriotism. Anyone has the right to interpret it this way. What comes with this love is currently a burden. Today, due to the information superhighway’s coming out party, how you feel towards the USA matters. It did not in previous decades matter that much, to most. Many times in the past, telling people to “love your country” was another way of saying “get in line”; that is, do not upset the apple cart, and follow the rules. Sometimes these rules were inhumane, therefore making the “love your country” and the flag itself create hatred, shame and envy. More recently, it has mainly been used to divide people. Divide them in thought, and in person. If you do not fly the flag, or show daily submission to the elected representatives you are a traitor. You may not be labelled that, but individuals do really think this way, because of this action to divide people, to see each other as that, an other. I have more recently come to the end of the long term process of being naturalized as an American citizen. The process took 14 years and indirectly more than 100K US. “Indirectly” due to all the extraneous time and costs associated not only with lawyer and process fees. I mention this because I am considered a LEGAL immigrant to this country. I came from Canada. Not because of turmoil in that province and country, but due to possibility and opportunity at a higher order further south in the Sonoran desert. I mention this because I can speak for the moral individuals who are and were attracted to the “beacon on the hill”. I can contribute my thoughts on why I never blinked when the time came to move south. Sure, there is an important conversation to be had on assimilation, border services and processes, labour changes, and safety. There is also most certainly a front end conversation to be had about the rules and laws that we as American citizens derive from the original documents from our Founders. Along with a scary, progressive chat on modernity, liberalism and the Golden Rule for all humans. I would think that if most Americans were to spend a lot more time learning about that attraction to the USA, the original laws and ideas on the attraction, as well as positive, individual, legal stories; and a LOT less time learning and reacting from your daily “news” source on “the crackdown on illegal immigration”, change in thinking might occur. Living in Arizona for 14 years gave me numerous chances to create my thoughts on the attraction. From hunting for javelina at the border and seeing the human trails, to observing my home and community being maintained by illegal immigrants, to being aware of my daughters participating in sport with a diverse set of females with some of them being considered DREAMERS - across the board, I am pretty darn close to a refined explanation of why anyone would want to be in the United States of America. Within the opinions shared on the immigration topic, each American citizen needs to consider the influence from large corporations, big government policies on borders, crime and drugs as well as this over arching theme of doom and gloom for young people and the current and future cost of living. The easiest and lowest order way of approaching this topic is to scroll on fantasy media, listen only to humans who share your opinions, and essentially live your life reacting to the vitriol thrown about. Yes, this is the EASIEST way. It is hard and challenging to read a few books. Books on the topics that show the connection to the governments inability to do anything about crime and drugs due to the uncomfortable connection to large corporations and big money. That is a start. It is a great thing about information progression today. The fact that only 25 years ago, it would take 10 years between cycles where the public becomes aware of the fact that this drug/border/immigration thing happens repetitively with no movement to make a few people a LOT of money. Today, these repeated errors are front and center, on a DAILY basis. This does result in fatigue, but it also results in an unfortunate cynicism on behalf of the citizen, where everyone who remains in tune sees that it is all a show, ie. entertainment. Combine that with how information is seen and heard and understood today, and you have a recipe for impatience and small, specific instances of revolution. We are at the point where a neighboring country that has almost ZERO involvement in this drugs and crime issue with the USA, is perceived to be a “narco-terrorist” organization. We are shown and told that we killed all 12 of them, because they were sending enough drugs on dories across the ocean for one large party in a penthouse in Miami somewhere. All the tags that the unconscious, unaware, uninformed human will get is #immigration, #terrorism, #sex-trafficking, #cartel. Yes, this is where we are. Full acceptance of these “things” that happen on the internet. We are not even sure if it is real. But most people will still leave that page or image and gossip about how awesome that was that we as a country obliterated some humans in the sea.
