ephemera

[Edit: this was originally posted here, but I’ve crossposted it at my more serious blog, The Simple Best. Please link that version.]

Every child who has ever asked what the United States of America is knows that this country is the land of the free and the home of the brave. It is a place where everyone is equal, and every child has a chance to grow up and be the president. Each citizen gets to vote for the people who will represent him. Each citizen has the right to hold different religious, political, and moral views from his neighbours without fear of violent reprisal.

I personally grew up knowing that the United States of America was the most powerful, the most honourable, the most wealthy, the most accepting, and the most good nation in the world. Citizens of the US and other nations alike had nothing to fear from my government unless they harmed a US citizen, and then justice—not vengeance, but justice—would be swift and inescapable.

Through high school I knew that even though the people in charge of my government were self-serving, deceitful, and yes, even war criminals, in eight years at most there would be a new government and it would turn on its head every mistake, every step back the cynical, amoral, backsliding Bush administration had made. I knew that when the time came, I would have the privilege to vote for the first female president, the first African-American president, the first atheist president, the first openly gay or transgender or polyamorous president—I knew all these things would come. I had only to wait, and to vote, and to speak my mind, and to keep the faith.

But now my faith is broken.

In 2008, we elected our nation’s first African-American president (years earlier than I expected, I will freely admit). We also elected an American president, a man who from start to finish of his eloquent speeches and tailored suits seemed quintessentially and historically American in his outlook. We believed that he held the rights of human beings above the violence that could be committed against them. We believed that he would uphold the separation of church and state with vigor and the knowledge that that separation is necessary. We believed that he, of all people, would strive untiringly for the rights of those who still lack them in our society. We believed that he would do what each of us believe we would do in his position. We believed he would make things right.

He has not.

It is not Barack Obama’s fault that those who fear him for his race, or his education, or the religion they mistakenly believe he follows, have come to wield power and influence public opinion. That is not even a side effect of his election. No, the hate, the xenophobia, the un-American fear of the other that has exploded since his election is the direct responsibility of those who wield it like a weapon against him and against the Americans who believed in him: people like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and others whose names I will not mention here. They have done their part to bring America to its knees, and we must hold them accountable as we have not yet done.

But it is Barack Obama’s fault that his administration has not upheld American principles of protection of innocent, peaceful citizens from unreasonable search and seizure. It is Barack Obama’s fault that his administration is working to remake the whole internet in a form more easily bugged and censored. It is Barack Obama’s fault that he has not strived more strongly for the equal right to marry of our gay brothers and sisters. It is Barack Obama’s fault that the war criminals of the previous administration have not been brought to trial for their actions. It is Barack Obama’s fault that the military forces of an allied state can kill an American citizen without a reaction from the government of the United States.

It is Barack Obama’s fault. And it is Joe Biden’s fault. And it is the fault of every elected official of the United States of America who has allowed these things, these violations of the American way, to continue. And it is our fault—it is most of all that—for not being louder in our condemnations.

If you’re upset about what you’ve seen; if you’re upset about what you’ve heard; if you’re upset about what you’ve lived through; if you’re upset about the illegal war, and the removal of rights, and the illegal wiretapping; if you think peace activists should be secure in their homes; if you think your gay friend deserves the same human and civil rights as you do; if you think that libraries should be places of learning without government surveillance; if you think children born to Mexican parents should be able to look forward to one day becoming president, without fearing the possibility of deportation…

Speak up.

Please.

For the love of your country.