Wanted: Reformation

We truly live in an eccentric country, one with a people from every corner of the globe. This purée of the world’s citizenry that is the United States of America has a whole lot going for it, and has had it this way for just about the past forever-and-a-half. Nowhere else in the world can you be poor enough to get a free education, rich enough to not pay taxes, and in-between enough to get overlooked and shove out money for both. However, along with all the great things that this country has to boast about, over time it has accumulated a laundry list of… well dirty laundry. Through it all, Uncle Sam has managed to manage this heap of sullied garments quite well in the past; however, recent years have shown us that the lid on this hamper can only stay on for so much longer as the blood stained sleeves are already hanging over the edges and will eventually start to pour out onto the floor for all the world to see. What this means is that we are approaching an interesting point in our country’s history where we will either have to stop ignoring that pungent smell of used up clothing and make a trip to the Laundromat, or let the sweaty socks and stained drawers pile up and continue to let the rest of the world judge us when they walk into our unkept bedroom.

But of course it’s easier said than done. This beautiful land of the free, in all of its snowy-mountain, grassy-pastured, God-blessed splendor, is uniquely made up of such a amalgamation of all kinds of people, each with their own set of interests, opinions, beliefs, and aspirations for how they would like to see the country develop over time. The funny thing about this nation is that its citizens divide, classify, and delineate themselves into all kinds of categories, organizations, and affiliations. With those fractioned alignments we end up with liberals pitted against conservatives and vise-versa, elected officials who pledge themselves to corporations and not their constituency, and others who put the interests of foreign countries first. This, my friends, is where its starts to get a little inefficient…

There’s never been anything wrong with pursuing your own interest and having those interests shape your political ideology. However, the instant that those interests undermine, or impede upon the liberties and livelihood of others it begins to become a problem. Unfortunately this is the reality we exist in. It is a reality where the status quo is determined by a group of individuals who no longer represent the rich diversity that has beautified this nation over the years. A group of people hell bent on sustaining this outdated mode of operation, which serves no one but themselves, disproportionately pushing all influence in their hands. It’s this group of people who overwhelmingly populate all forms of elected offices which determine the direction this country is headed in.

Your typical congressmen or senator is a White Anglo–Saxon Protestant male, most likely concerned with a number of things, excluding your well-being and rights, but more along the lines of which corporation’s interests to pursue and how to cover it up so as to get re-elected. Along with that we have leaders in certain states who are not just concerned with boosting their own well-being, but also with diminishing that of others. As a result, we have individuals like the governor of Florida attempting to deny convicted felons the right to vote, after having served their sentence and repaid society for the crimes they committed. Crimes that are very likely a result of the social conditions that are brought on by the very oppressive and negligent policies that the Governor and his predecessors have supported over the years. These policies undermine education and cultivate an environment for such rampant anti-social behavior to exist, thus leading these people on what seems to be a carefully paved road to becoming convicted felons. Interestingly enough, though, it just so happens that a vast majority of those convicted of these crimes happen to belong to a certain minority. So to Governor Rick Scott, it is only just a coincidence that if this policy is enacted, the voices of millions of Black Floridians will be silenced. And as long as they continue to cut funding for education, and punish schools who perform poorly by providing less funding, then they will successfully create self-sustaining factory communities that mass produce poverty, lack of education, and the crimes that result from them; effectively succeeding in practically ripping the voice box out of an entire population.

But Florida isn’t the only pioneer in oppressive politics, Florida’s neighbors to the north are working on laws to essentially disenfranchise future generations of immigrants by denying them the human right to an education. These states are following in the steps of the great state of Arizona’s most astute and obviously righteous leadership- targeting not just immigrant but their children. They are requiring all parents of children being enrolled into public schools to provide proof of citizenship or immigration status. This will leave immigrant parents scared of being deported to avoid sending their kids to get educated. Like most oppressive political strategies, this will have a deeper impact than just prevent immigrants from coming to those states. It will sustain an overwhelming lack of education in the communities where these immigrants exist and thus facilitate the growth poverty and crime.

Our country is a great nation but the hands of unfit leaders have been on it’s steering wheel for way too long. The closest ally the United States has in this world is one which has engaged in over 60 years of Human Rights violations, as well as broken over 220 UN Resolutions condemning its actions. The leaders we have elected are the ones who have made this possible by funding these actions with billions of YOUR tax dollars that are sent overseas. Yet despite all of it’s abhorrent actions, there still is an unrelenting support for Israel and its misdeeds by almost every single person seated in Congress and the US Senate and we have yet to question this as a nation. This is just one example of how we continue to pour tax money into useless accounts such as the aforementioned, and continue to cut back on education and infrastructure as if our leaders are purposefully trying to dumb us down and disable us as a people.

While our country is in the midst of all these practices and many, many more, the world is watching. There used to be an overwhelming support for the our country, but as our dirty laundry has exposed itself over the years, the world is steadily realizing that this isn’t the freedom loving, democratic advocate that we have made ourselves out to be. We support fascist dictators, pay for military equipment used to oppress millions, and try to limit the rights of our own citizens. And these are only the things that we actually know about. Its obvious that there’s is a huge change needed, we must put pressure on our lawmakers and remind them that they are in office to serve us and not their own interests. We must reaffirm that we want a country run by genuine people committed to the betterment of our communities, and not just our country, but also the rest of the world. We no longer need these self-righteous actors, sustaining a façade of morality, who have flooded Congress and the Senate. We need to send them packing and bring in a reformation of our country’s principles and those who determine its direction.

For this to happen, we all have to re-calibrate our goals and aspirations, let go of any selfish personal beliefs and opinions, and reestablish a vision for our country that serves the greater good of all of its citizens and the world. We may all belong to different religions, ethnicities, and political interests, however we are all Americans with equal stakes in our country’s future. If we really care to clean up our country’s act, we must first come to terms with the fact that we are letting corrupt leaders destroy our country’s reputation. Then, we must all take part in reforming our country to actually fulfill the purpose and goals that our founding fathers set out to accomplish. If we remain silent and continue to ignore these truths, we are likely to dive into a future where the status quo remains unquestioned. Just stop for a second and consider how different our country would be if no one spoke out during the Civil Rights movement, throughout the Women’s Suffrage era, or if there were no Abolitionists in the 1800’s. Just know that keeping quiet is no different from accepting these injustices, and we are all responsible for our country and it’s actions whether we openly advocate for them or quietly accept them.

Photo by PS-OV-ART via Flickr

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