Letter to the Land of the Free

Dear America,

I love you.

Is that an awkward way to start a letter? I mean, I like, love you, but I’m not, like, in love with you, but I like you, but I’m not saying I like like you, you know?

I’m just writing because I know that you’re birthday’s a few days away. It’s the big 243! What are you going to do to celebrate? I was thinking about dumping some tea into the San Francisco Bay, just to spite the British, but I don’t know; that might be a little petty. England seems to have moved on from us, anyway. No reason to keep rubbing our independence in their faces, right?

No, I’m going to celebrate by eating good food with my whole family. It’s also a time of reflection. Around this time of year, I think it’s natural for me to be thinking about you. You’ve come so far!

Because I love you, I just wanted to take some time to remind you of some things…

You Are Worth Celebrating

I wanted to start with a quick affirmation. You are great. You, America, are worthwhile. Your Constitution is brilliant. Your checks and balances reveal your wise understanding of human nature. As your declaration says, you believe that all are created equal, endowed by their creator with inalienable rights.

You are a land of progress, innovation, liberty, liberation, tenacity, audacity, ambition, and grit.

Now, I admit, you have been far from perfect. Your history may be legendary and epic, but parts of are also awkward, dark, dehumanizing, and inconvenient.

I’m not here to argue about your past, but affirm your ideals. I believe you can still become the best version of yourself.

But, if we’re being honest…

You Have a Broken Past

The truth is, you’ve made some significant mistakes. But it’s easy to tear you down. It’s easy to criticize. It’s easy to look at history and scream.

It’s easy to look at things—like The Trail of Tears, Slavery, Japanese Internment Camps, Segregation, Racism, and whatever else. It’s easy to see the darkness and brokenness and not see the good.

I’m proud of the Emancipation Proclamation, but I’m sad that it was necessary. I’m happy for the Civil Rights Movement, but why did it take the Land of the Free so long to do it?

Why did it take so long for women to be given the right to vote?

I can be patriotic about you, America. I can say you’re worthwhile. But the truth is, some people don’t feel the same way. It’s easy for me to ignore the injustices of your past because I haven’t felt their direct effect, but for others within your borders, these things still haunt them.

The past is connected to the present, and both the present and the past inform our future. Yes, I believe you can be celebrated in spite of the grave mistakes of your past, but because I love you, I want to make sure you continually learn from that past.

After all…

You Are Still Healing from Your Brokenness

I celebrate what a blessing it is to have been born in America, but I’d be remiss to assume everyone feels the same way. Many of your people don’t trust you. Many of your people are still healing from the institutional systemic sins of slavery and segregation.

Many people are still affected today by lingering racism, sexism, and all-around hatred. We can’t say “Civil Rights was fifty years ago, so get over it.” The Civil Rights movement didn’t mark the end of racism, just like the nineteenth amendment, while giving women the right to vote, didn’t mark the end of sexism.

We are the Land of the Free, right? We have proclaimed that all people are created equal from the inception of our nation, right?

But when law abiding citizens are scared of police officers, somewhere there’s a disconnect. When women are objectified daily, and a shockingly high percentage are harassed, abused, and assaulted on a regular basis, we have to admit that our culture has problems.

In the words of the poet Jason “Propaganda” Petty (in the song “Crooked Ways”),

“I don’t hate America, [I] just demand she keeps her promises.”

Why am I writing all this? Because I love you, remember?

Many people who are patriotic are so for the right reasons, but they are so passionate for the good you represent, they want to sweep the negative parts of your history under the rug.

We can love America, celebrate Fourth of July, and be patriotic while also being honest with ourselves about the darkness within her history.

When one leader says, “Let’s make America Great Again!”, some people agree wholeheartedly. Some say, “No, America’s always been great,” but many others answer, “No, America’s never been great!”

Granted, “great” is a subjective term. But America, the hard truth is, not all Americans love you. Not all Americans trust you. Not all Americans respect you.

After a history like yours, such respect and trust doesn’t come easy; you need to earn it.

But how? How can we see you learn, grow, and ascend to a place above your initially unkept promises of justice and equality?

I don’t have all the answers, but I know it starts with empathy and humility.

Admitting your faults doesn’t make you less worthy, but more worthy. More human. More relatable.

More than anything, America, you need unity. But we can’t be unified if we’re all fractured in our understanding of who you are. We cannot be healthy, we cannot heal, if we don’t seek to understand each other, respect each other, and learn from each other.

Let us listen to your first president, George Washington, form his farewell address:

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Our liberty depends on our unity! Factions will not save us! Party loyalty will not progress us!

Republican or Democrat, stubborn adherence to partisan factions does not help matters. Especially when such party loyalty leads us to treat the “other” as less than.

Remember, America, you are a promise! You are different, and you are exceptional. But you are NOT above reproach, and you are not immune from criticism. If you’re called on a moment of imperfection, don’t call the whistleblower unpatriotic. Listen to the criticism!

If the criticism is wrong, still listen to the concern. Every half-truth is partially true. Every good lie is based in such partial truth. Be willing to discuss! Be patient. Humble yourself to the possibility that you might be wrong.

Will this solve all of our problems?

No.

But if we want to fulfill the intentions of our own Constitution—if we really want to “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”—this is a good first step.

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“…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”—2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV) [emphasis added]

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O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain
America, America, God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea

O beautiful for Pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat, across the wilderness
America, America, God mend thine every flaw
Confirm thy soul in self control, Thy liberty in law

O beautiful for heroes proved, in liberating strife
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life
America, America, May God they gold refine
Till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine

O beautiful for patriot dream, that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears
America, America, God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea

~~~ “America the Beautiful” ~~~

As you think about America, her faults and virtues, here’s a playlist to both help you celebrate and encourage further discussion.