My America
I have traveled 43 of the 50 states, and my view of America may be different than most of the people you may know. I don't mean I've only been to airports and major cities, but I've been on the back roads, in one stoplight towns, and America ain't about the anthem or the presidential election. America is about each of us trying to achieve our own version of the American daydream.
There's a truck stop on Interstate 44 in a little town called Sleeper, Missouri, which has the third or fourth best grits I've ever had. Interstate 70, west of Denver, winds through the Rocky Mountains and along the Colorado River and I think it may be the prettiest scenery to be found in America. Basically, America the Beautiful is a reality, and it's more than just the landscape, it's the people tilling the soil, picking the crops, working in the factories, taking orders at the restaurants, and driving the trucks.
The Mexican immigrants who came as seasonal fruit pickers, hoping and working for their children to attend college and have better lives, they are a piece of the fabric of America. The Japanese descendants of those interred during WWII, they are America too. As well as the Native Americans, the Irish, and everyone else who came here looking for a better life. The American Dream.
None of my people came through Ellis Island, at least not my Black ancestors. We weren't fleeing pogroms, potato famines, or seeking religious freedom. The African Diaspora is a tragedy which has hurt and divided America for 400 years, since the first slave arrived in 1607. Guess what, though? Despite everything which has happened, this is my America too. Every good thing about America has the fingerprints of Black people on it, along with the fingerprints of everyone else who makes up the Melting Pot.
America isn't about the billionaires or the politicians, it's about all of us who do the working, the praying, the living, the crying, and the dying. We will all have different opinions and different views, but America is about embracing those differences.
Before you say something hateful or ignorant about anyone here in America, pause for a second and think about it first. America has never been great, but its always had the potential to be great. The media spotlights racial and cultural differences, without ever highlighting the commonalities amongst us. We want to make decent wages, have health-care, send our kids to college, take vacations, and enjoy the pursuit of our own individual happiness. Don't believe me? Take a drive to Sleeper, or McFarland, or anywhere here in America. Ask anybody what their hopes and daydreams are and I guarantee all of the answers will pretty much be the same. See, we aren't that different, are we?
