Happy Birthday America

It is the Fourth of July, America's birthday.

I was thinking back to elementary school today. I remember having to learn all of those different patriotic songs - You're a Grand Old Flag, This Land is Your Land, America the Beautiful. Do they teach kids these songs anymore? I also remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance and raising the flag at school in sixth grade.

As a kid, I don't know that I gave much thought to living in the United States. I lived in a conservative republican household and thought Ronald Reagan was the best president the United States had ever seen. As an adult, I am a 32 year old gay American male living in San Francisco, California and I view a lot of the actions of our country and our government with shame. How is it that we can be the richest country in the world, but not even give one percent of our spending to help out less fortunate nations? I was always raised with the belief that to whom much is given, much is expected. It seems that our government does not agree. We have become the fat pigs at the trough as depicted in the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. Even though this book was a parody of the Communist Revolution, I see a lot of parallels in our government policies today. In the last two major military campaigns that our government has launched (Gulf Wars 1 and 2 or, should we say, Bush Wars 1 and 2), what suffering have the American people endured? During World War II, the American people endured rationing of all vital supplies such as gasoline, sugar, rubber, nylon, you name it. They planted victory gardens and bought war bonds. What have we done? Very little in comparison. There's a part of me that feels that as long as Americans have our venti no whip nonfat ice white mochas, our ipods, and our cheaply produced Chinese electronic goods, we could care less about what's happening on the rest of the planet.

The average Chinese citizen makes $.08 / hour. That's up from $.04/hour several years ago and most economists feel this a huge improvement. Are they on crack? Where I live, you can barely survive on $15/hour.

Our government has also opened interment camps and created a network of secret prisons around the world where we transport men and women who have no official charges against them and no hope of ever seeing a fair trial. And this is our free and transparent society?

The Republicans have also started a divisive and pointless debate on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Is this what our free and fair society has come to? Pushing divisive issues to gain some kind of favor with a certain block of voters at the expensive of a word like marriage? Does anyone else think we have more important issues to be worrying about right now? I know, I know, it's all about defending the sanctity of the family and the sacred institution that marriage is. Puhleez..... (At this point, imagine me yawning and sighing in a very bored and irritated manner.)

Even though I'm bitching, I still have a great respect and admiration for what we have accomplished as a nation. We have a population of approximately 300 million people and states as diverse as Hawaii, Alaska, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Nevada, Louisiana, and on and on. The idea that our democracy would survive over 200 years is a testament to the founding fathers and their genius.

I sometimes toy with the idea of moving to another country. Some place that takes better care of its citizens and has a slower pace of life. In the end though, I am an American. Every time I examine the gold eagle on the front of my blue passport, this issue is brought home to me. I'm not completely ruling out the idea, especially if the political climate in this country continues its lumbering pace to the right. But for now, I'm a Yankee Doodle Boy. Happy 230th America.