gwyn | This is not MY country

I never thought I would live in a country that willfully chooses to viciously discriminate against its citizens because some of those citizens ignorantly buy into the empty rhetoric of religious lunatics and fearmongers.

I never thought I would live in a country that willingly elects someone to office despite his flagrant disregard for the well-being of its citizens, their livelihoods, their Constitutional freedoms, and their civil rights. When did a "tax-break" check for a few hundred dollars become a substitute for proper governance?

I never thought I would live in a country that gladly supports the invasion of a foreign country, however odious they are, as a way to divert attention from the administration's utter failure to protect its citizens from terrorism.

I never thought I would live in a country that supports the worst forms of abuse of prisoners or legal detainees, advocates the denial of basic human rights, and then makes such abuses legal inside its own borders.

I never thought I would live in a country that can't learn from its own sad history that prohibitive changes to that most fundamental of freedoms, the Constitution of the United States of America, violate everything our country stands for and was created to pursue.

I never thought I'd live in a country I was ashamed of because it elects a half-witted man who refuses to learn from mistakes, admit failure, change or grow, or even experience empathy for other individuals less fortunate than him. I never thought I would be afraid to travel outside the U.S., because I am embarassed to say I'm American.

I never thought I'd live in a country that believes narrow-minded bigotry is God's word. That was always others countries, other places ruled by fundamentalists with despotic delusions. It was not my America, founded on the notion that all Men are created equal, that we have a right to freedom of and from religion.

I never thought I would live in a country that actively perverts fears of terrorism into a denial of our rights and encourages people to believe in hollow palliatives. I never thought my country would actually violate its own Constitution in the name of "freedom."

I never thought I would live in a country where I hated so many people for their refusal to stand up and help effect change, and would allow a megalomaniacal, bigoted, anti-intellectual, stupid, and mean religious wack-job to crow that he has a mandate from the people. I never thought my country would allow apathy to govern its populace.

I never thought I would live in a country that offers me no good response to encourage those who don't vote. How can I say it matters when the bad guys win the day every time? How can I change their minds when a quasi-Illuminati-like organization of people who are not elected by the citizens of this country get to decide who runs it, even though we have no idea who they are or how they are chosen to elect for us?

I never thought I would watch everything I love and value about this country, even the First Amendment I would lay down my life for because I believe so strongly in it, being taken away from me, inexorably, and no one in power is willing to stop it.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I never thought I would wake up one day and live in a country I fear to live in. But today is that day.

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From:

klia.livejournal.com

I agree with everything you said. I've never been more embarrassed to be an American than I am today. It's not just the presidential race, either. We lost a lot of congressional seats to conservatives, too, which is even more depressing.

I don't know how I'll make it through the next 4 years, watching hard-won rights being stripped away, one by one.