I have been saying, recently, that the United States are gone and there is only America. America was the glistening paradise, Camelot, the land of dreams...was.
For decades Americans have been able to rest on laurels, both rightly deserved and sometimes unjustly taken. None of the following is exhaustive, but they are important aspects of history that are easily glossed over.
Just a little note, I will be breaking one of the first rules of writing about history in that I’m going to use “we” a lot. I know myself and most people that would read this weren’t alive for most (if any) of what I’m writing about, and I know we all don’t like to feel guilty for things that aren’t “our fault.” But the issues, the history, I’m summarizing here continue to affect millions of people- and the majority of Americans still descend from the groups that were at fault...and we do have a responsibility to make reparations and move forward. Particularly since we now know how trauma carries from generation to generation.
The first colonists came seeking religious freedom, a value we continue to hold tightly to today. But some faithfuls, regardless of creed, advocate that their religious beliefs should be law...the very practice being escaped some 400 years ago.
Our first colonists drove Native Americans from their ancestral lands. Sometimes with compensation...sometimes with violence. These practices continued, for centuries, until through wars and illness and deadly relocations resulted in reservations as we know them today. Even then conversion and cultural assimilation were tactics used to continue to destroy languages and cultures deemed “lesser.” Today we can tout services and programs and scholarships...but few of which are appropriately managed or advertised- and many that come too late to break negative cycles.
Then came the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. And cash cropping. And a death toll and abuses that can never truly be accounted for. Families torn apart and kept in unthinkably horrid conditions. Children taken from their parents- sold- because they were viewed as property. Slave status followed the mother’s, and many owned their own children as a result from rape. “But the Civil War!” “But the Emancipation Proclamation!” Let’s remember share-cropping, a cycle that benefitted former slave owners and kept freed people indebted when they had nowhere else to go and nothing else to their name. Even then it wasn’t enough. Faced with large numbers of men who could now vote for the first time, literacy tests, poll taxes, and myriad other means were enforced to keep those voices silent until 1965.
Our dedicated forces helped win both World Wars...but not without ignoring the problems for far longer than we discuss in our history classes. Our country was pulled from the Great Depression not by “our bootstraps,” but by profiting from manufacturing arms. We don’t discuss the massive loss of human life in Japan both during and after the atomic bombs were dropped, we discuss the affront to the American people in the attack on Pearl Harbor. We certainly don’t discuss that Russia, one of our strongest allies in WWII, had killed millions of its own people systematically in the 1930s- and continued to do so into the 1950s.
We barely discuss that it wasn’t only Jewish people being targeted by Nazi Germany, but other ethnic minorities as well. We don’t discuss that it was also anyone with disabilities. We don’t discuss that it was also homosexuals. But given our focus on the Jewish population we also don’t discuss that the global population has never recovered.
Similarly we rarely discuss such unpleasantries that look bad upon reflection: the Chinese Exclusion Act in particular is missed. Japanese internment camps (we say internment because somehow we’ve been led to believe they were different than concentration camps). We don’t discuss non-involvement in things like the Armenian genocide (or any other genocides under the Ottoman Empire) despite acknowledging and providing aid...because we didn’t step in to stop it.
We don’t discuss United States led imperialism. What we call “Westward Expansion” and “Manifest Destiny” are pretty words to hide the atrocities that resulted in our modern landscape. And this imperialism wasn’t just “at home.” No, we also don’t discuss the occupation of the Philippines until after WWII.That our military presence in Japan has led to a “pro-American” indoctrination and they are still not allowed a standing military. The fact that Hawaii was a recognized kingdom and the US took that too.
Ask yourself what you learned about US History. Were you told about the Trail of Tears? The Massacre at Wounded Knee? Was it more important to know that each enslaved person gave a slaveholder ⅗ additional vote...or that some people in Europe crossed the sea as an indentured servant? Did you learn about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad? Rosa Parks and her bus seat? Martin Luther King Jr. and pacifist sit-ins? I imagine probably so, but were the reasons why discussed? Were you told that it was about ending segregation? Were you told that until the 1960s many people of color still couldn’t vote?
The most basic of American ideals was the concept of representation, yet at every turn there have been obstacles for those who weren’t white of European descent. Sure, there were exceptions there too (see: Irish need not apply), but they essentially prove the rule.
When we discuss “rights,” remember that you do have the right to swing your fist- but that right ends at your target’s nose. You have the right to practice religion, have guns, say whatever you want...but if those ultimately infringe on other people’s rights you should face consequences.
Americans are at a crossroads, and we have so many possibilities ahead. We’ve left a year that has highlighted so many of the dysfunctions in our country- and those aren’t going away simply because the calendar has moved forward. But we can embrace our history, learn from it, do better by acknowledging our flaws. We can’t change what happened but we can change what’s happening and will happen in the future.
We can’t take back the last four years with a little “Whoops!” footnote. We can’t pretend that our Capitol wasn’t literally breached by domestic terrorists. We can’t pretend we aren’t culpable for that too because this country has failed each and every citizen by sweeping its failings under the rug and blaming the other party for using the broom even as they hold the rug up for them.
Some apologist historian out there is already writing about how Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, will not be remembered for the myriad lies, or the lack of decorum, or being impeached (possibly twice)... but as someone who saved America evidenced by the tidal wave of civic engagement and interest in politics and governing.
This will ignore, of course, the complete lack of understanding many people had for the processes and legalities they questioned if not outright opposed. But they volunteered as a poll watcher for the first time. Some voted for the first time. Some contacted their legislators to make sure their voice was heard for the first time.
Every problem, every institution we saw highlighted in 2020 has been known, documented, reported on, studied for years. And we’ve failed to correct them at every opportunity.
Because America believed they were better than and “saving” Native Americans.
Because America accepted completely nonsensical “evidence” that Blacks weren’t human.
Because America rejects education- particularly liberal arts.
Because America allows money and industry to mean more than lives.
Because America ignores and forgets its blame and seeks to punish those who oppose.
We can’t continue like this. We can’t keep sticking our heads in the sand and pretending our way is best when our people are going hungry and homeless at rates similar to the Great Depression. We can’t keep saying our “Founding Fathers” got it right- we’ve already decided they didn’t have a full picture 27 times!
We give up certain freedoms to participate in a civilized community. Sometimes this means things like wearing a mask so you and others can all feel comfortable regardless of your own thoughts on the matter.
When the majority of the country are not accurately represented by their government, something in the process needs reworking. When a system whose founding was calculated on the backs of disenfranchised enslaved people persists and creates misrepresentation, that system needs reworking.
If the premise of the United States, and thus the federal government is the pursuit of life, liberty, and property, then the federal government should ensure equal footing in those pursuits. This means providing things like basic income, healthcare, housing, and -yes- education. Anything beyond is on the individual, and that’s okay.
When people don’t have to work to live, they are more productive to society. When everyone has healthcare, and thus the freedom to shop, better insurance and provision of services happens.
Small, local businesses are the heart of what made America, but they are dying under capitalism. The current system continues to allow consolidation of companies under various loopholes, until there won’t be anything left
At the end of World War II the United Nations drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States agreed- but you would be surprised how many times America has found itself in violation. Similarly the Millennium Development Goals...most of which are issues in our own country.
I can’t cover all or solve any of these problems, obviously. I’m really just here to say that we’re not doing good...and we can’t afford to lie to ourselves about it any longer.
