I am fortunate to travel regularly, both within the United States as well as outside of our borders. Every place I have traveled I ask the same question: “could I live there?”
I am not actively trying to move out of our present state let alone leave the country, but the question is always poised as to whether somewhere else provides a better sanctuary than my present home. I am a born and raised New Yorker. I was raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the South Bronx and mostly Uptown in the Heights, and Dyckman. These were all areas known for their high crime and drug trafficking, but I would not trade my experiences growing up in any of these “hoods”.
New York built the foundation of the man I am today. Traveling smoothed out the rough edges. One thing travel has showed me, is how beautiful America is. The aesthetics of much of this country’s topography alone are breathtaking. From the urban grit and skyscrapers of cities like NY to Rocky Mountain regions oceanfront majesty on both coasts and national treasures like Yellowstone, The Redlands and The Grand Canyon.
Other countries all over the world share traits of beauty as well. From the Great Wall to the Coliseums in Rome, to the Pyramids in Egypt to Africa’s Serengeti, to Dubai’s skyscrapers to Mykonos’ hillside oceanfront views to the pristine sands of Turks and Caicos. The world has so many beautiful places to see and even live.
What ultimately separates the United States is everything else. America is a Superpower. We have one of the world’s strongest military used in part to protect an ideology of protected freedoms. We have freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of capitalistic pursuits, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble and speak out against our government. There are other countries that many of our protected freedoms and ideologies, but let’s face it most of them don’t have ideal weather or our beautiful beaches.
We are universally considered the land of opportunity and that is a significant reason why so many visit and attempt to immigrate to this country both legally and illegally. At times we do live up to our reputation as a great nation. However, far too often
We fall short, in large part to hypocrisy by the establishment, politicians and many of our people. Aside from Native Americans and African slaves, EVERYONE that lives in America is either an immigrant or direct descendant of someone who voluntarily immigrated to America. Yet, you have so many who vociferously oppose providing those same opportunities to others. Many, who not so coincidentally happen to be People Of Color.
We are the anointed world police and moral compass for society. We speak out with indignation against the perceived human rights violations of other nations, when within our own borders our storied history of oppression of People Of Color has been understatedly troublesome and continues to be an unresolved powder keg.
We pride ourselves on the protections provided by the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution in our right to free speech, especially against the government. However, too many, especially the established powers, feel that the right to protest is only valid when done within the arbitrary rules of acceptance they choose to invoke whimsically.
Too many in America like Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, condemn peaceful protesting organizations like Black Lives Matters as “terrorists” for simply invoking their right to free speech and protest. Or they decry the patriotism of Colin Kaepernick and other athletes for failing to stand at attention for the national anthem as a form of oppression for police shootings and oppression. Yet these same critics are almost never empathetic to the causation behind the need for the protests.
They have a right to criticize the protests but the protesters have no rights to protest by their chosen methodology. That kind of seems to be a definition of hypocrisy.
With all its flaws, I still think America has the chance to be better. Whether you think America was or is presently great, the fact is it still has room for improvement. You can call it a criticism. I choose to call it constructive. I still believe in this country and even with news cycles blaring out its deficiencies, I still see the progress that has been made in my lifetime as well as the potential for this nation’s continued growth. America can do better…It is just up to us as citizens to do our part and ensure that it will. Our participation in this year’s elections are one of the ways to impart a referendum on what we want our America to be most representative of.
#voteorelse #america #election2016 #kaepernick #policeshootings
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