I F*cking Love America

I love America. I love the land. I love the ideals on which this nation was founded. I love that for most of my life, our country has been a bastion of hope and prosperity for the rest of the world to admire.

A friend of mine recently noted they were thinking about skipping 4th of July celebrations going forward. When I asked why they said it was because they celebrated Juneteenth this year and felt that was a better reflection of American freedom than the 4th. There is some merit to that thought, for sure. When the founders sent their letter off to England letting them know they weren’t taking their British shit anymore, I doubt they were thinking about anyone but white men. So from that perspective, I get it.

I used to have a copy of the Declaration of Independence hanging up in my bedroom. I got it on a trip to Washington, DC as a kid. It was one of those cheap reproductions you can get in the gift shops all around the capital. To make it even more authentic, I stained the paper with tea to give it an aged look and gently singed the corners. I would stare at the signatures and try to see if I recognized any of them. Most I didn’t know. A few I did. Ben Franklin, John Hancock (known mostly for his signature and insurance plans), John Adams, Sam Adams. Jefferson. I would imagine how it feels to be a descendant of one of those men, to see his signature on such an important document. I envied them.

There was nothing more badass to me, and this remains true, than telling an entire monarchy to go fuck off. And that’s what the Declaration was. Essentially, it’s a list of grievances they (the colonies) have with the king. For a recalcitrant teenager like me, having an official government document sanctifying rebellion against the authorities, well that was just too good. All my life I’d been told and taught to worship the founders. After god and Jesus, there go the founders. I think that was the experience most kids had in the 80s and 90s.

This was all before I woke up to the reality of America; before I understood that those same men who I so admired had owned other people and subjected them to a hell worse than anything a 13-year-old could imagine. Turns out, they left quite a bit out of the history books we were given. We didn’t have things like this back when I was in school. The more I learned, the more the luster of the founders wore off. Nowadays, I think the only impressive one might be John Adams but even that is a stretch.

While I may have lost a great deal of respect for the founders, the ideals they left behind shined even brighter when contrasted with their hypocrisy of their originators. How could the same group of men who owned slaves and held misogynist attitudes have come to this conclusion:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Now, of course, they were probably only thinking about white males, specifically, but there is some wiggle room here to be inclusive. It’s not uncommon to refer to humans simply as “man” and it wasn’t unusual at the time to do that. If we want to be generous, which happens to fit my argument so let’s run with it, it could be argued that they were speaking about all human beings. That we are born free and have a right to remain as such. How they could have missed the irony is beyond me. Alas, the message is often more important than the messenger.

America has always been a work in progress. The founders set it up that way. They knew that things would change over time and they wanted our government to be flexible enough to change with the times. There might not always be a day when blacks were counted as 3/5ths of a person. And hey, now they’re just seen as criminals. PROGRESS. But seriously, one of the great things about the American Experiment is how out of control it is. I doubt these wealthy, landowning white men ever envisioned a day where women would be their equals and minorities would have a voice in government. But with each election cycle, more and more people gain representation. In order to get their own freedom from England, the founders opened a Pandora’s box of sorts. If they could demand rights from a heavenly-appointed king, then why not a commoner? A woman?

Each step of progress in our country reveals more rot to be reconciled. I never thought in my lifetime places like NASCAR would ban the Traitor’s Flag. Gay marriage always seemed an eternally far away thing to achieve. So many social movements have sprung up and gained momentum. That anyone talks at all about trans issues is a miracle. When I was a teenager, if you dressed opposite your assigned gender then you were liable to catch an ass-whupping. That is is still true in many places, I know, but in a lot of cities, there is acceptance.

I doubt very much that trans people were in the minds of the founders when they began to stitch this country together, even though most of the men back then dressed fancier than even the fanciest ladies now (makes you think). They were thinking about themselves and had witnessed the turmoil abroad when it came to governments and monarchies. They wanted to assure they would have a place in their own governance and by doing so, left the door open behind them for everyone to get through. It may have been an accident but so was penicillin. All the more reason to celebrate it.

Nothing grinds my gears more than when conservatives say something like “un-American” or say that a group of people aren’t “real Americans”. Like, what is that trash? Who the fuck made them judge and jury of what was American? I must have missed when the notices went out for the committee to determine such things. You’ll notice, by the way, it is always a white person saying something like that. They don’t realize it but what they are accidentally conflating is white supremacy and America and that one is defined by the other. Oops! Unless you are some deranged, flag humping maniac with a “Don’t Tread on Me” sticker on your pickup you do not qualify for Americaness. Sorry. Honestly, these people care more about symbols than they do actual human beings.

Look at this deranged asshole. I have never felt so bad for fabric in my life.

Why do conservatives get to claim America as their own? Fuck that. This country is as much mine as it is yours or anyone else’s. That flag is mine as much as it is yours. And we can do whatever we want to it. Who set the standards of patriotic “respect”? White men. Who picked the anthem? White men. Who wrote it? White man. Who designed the flag? White men. And no, Betsy Ross didn’t do shit. That’s all a load of crap. So you’ll forgive me if I am not as differential to the flag as some of you. I wasn’t consulted about how sanctified it should be in the first place.

It’s hard, so very hard, for white people to have their American-ness challenged or questioned. In many ways, white supremacy has set up a system that cannot be challenged. The whole point of supremacy is to dominate. It is designed to prevent any other perspectives from entering the thought sphere. Look at all the hubbub surrounding the anthem and kneeling. White people lost their shit and accidentally revealed a lot about themselves in the process.

First, there is this notion that the players should be “grateful” for having their stations. As if America swooped down from the heavens and gave these athletes (most of whom were black) their place in society. They’ll say something like “you should appreciate all that America has given you” and of course the hidden implication is “you could be a slave again you ingrate”. Funny, whenever a rich white guy agitates for social change, I never hear anyone push back on them that they should be grateful for what they already have. It’s as if when a black guy does it, there’s something missing from the rest of the sentence.

Second, I’m not sure who decided that standing was respectful. This is an odd and very weird thing. What does how prone my body is, have to do with how I feel about my country?

Lastly, I’m not sure who decided that kneeling was disrespectful. All I keep hearing is white people, mostly men, shouting on TV about YOU SHOW RESPECT AND STAND as if we’re going to hurt the flag’s feelings. OK, man, that’s your thing. You can stand all you want. Ain’t nobody telling you to do something. But why do they get to tell us what to do? Again, this country is ours as much as it is theirs! If I feel my patriotism is best expressed by kneeling, then who the fuck are you to challenge that?

They might have intended to create America to be a place of white supremacy. And I think they largely accomplished that goal. But by creating a society of “We the People” they have given us, all of us, a way to dictate and control the future of our nation. Don’t let people disenfranchise you from that. White people will always try to claim America in their name. It’s up to us to make sure they know that it belongs to us too.

So next weekend, put on your best USA! USA! USA! paraphernalia and go represent YOU. This ain’t theirs. It’s ours.

Time to reclaim this country.