Control: America!

I, Dalton Lewis, am an American citizen. I have lived in America almost all of my life. I believe in my country, from the elections to the education to the sports to the powerful military that should win any war. I am an American to the bone, to the heart, to the spirit.

What defines America? I think that America has burgers and hot dogs. We grill outside in the summer and fall. We have American football — I love American football. We fight desperately to defend our country. We have a strong military. We believe in freedom of religion and the ability to believe in anything we want. We believe in capitalism. We believe that we have a strong economy and want to parlay that into some sort of global dominance. We speak English and sometimes Spanish.

There are dark sides to America, too. We have more mass shootings than any other country in the world. Sometimes people win more votes and lose an election — this is a republic, not a democracy. America idolizes the concept of celebrity to an outrageous degree. Why? We are also rude, selfish, arrogant, and sometimes fat. Our corporations often do horrible things for money. Trickle down may or may not exist. A growing number of wealthy, non college graduates listen to Donald Trump. People have elected celebrities and actors president. This country runs on celebrity and gossip and a knowledge economy.

Donald Trump doesn’t want everyone born in U.S. to be a citizen. He wants authorities to be able to hold immigrant children in facilities for more than the previous limit of twenty days. He doesn’t want to give a green card to someone who might need public aid. Well, I need public aid, and I am a perfectly good person and an innocent American. Donald Trump is, however, an American. A lot of Americans have a wide variety of belief systems, and many of them are in conflict with those of other Americans. We don’t always get along.

There have been around one hundred domestic terror arrests in which white supermacists have been arrested. Why do we allow this in our country? Why is racism a core part of our country? Why are mass shootings an American thing? Why don’t we get better? I was asked if I thought America was on the decline, and I said no, and my friends mocked me. Apparently they think that America won’t last forever. Historically nations haven’t lasted forever. The USSR stopped being the USSR in my lifetime.

What is America? I mean that the country has fought to slowly grow less racist and less homophobic as the years have passed, but the old history of the country includes many mistakes. We have to face the fact that, one hundred years ago, I would be locked in a facility, screaming at the walls, because I was mentally ill. African-Americans mostly wouldn’t vote. Women would be fighting for the right to vote. Gay people would have their lives seen as taboo and would be called horrible names. Hell, a new version of a lot of those things happen today.

Gay people are still called horrible names. White supermacists have attacked gay home bases and African-American home bases. Voting is still wracked by controversy. The president says to make America great again to cater to the right. The right and the left are still bitterly fighting with each other. I hate politics because people fight and argue and disagree and everyone should get along. The right and the left are like a divorced couple, fighting to treat us, the children, the American people, fighting to give us the best life that they can. I don’t know what to say except that this fighting needs to stop.

Thanks, and take care, friends.