Paid subscriptions are paused as newsletters will be sporadic this month due to summer travel plus an exciting visit — my cousins from India are visiting the US for the first time. Access is unchanged but no one will be charged for renewals until further notice. Thanks for your understanding. — Asha MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS came to the US from Lithuania to build a better life. My grandfather came to the US from Ukraine, against all odds, to build a better life. My father came to the US from India to build a better life. My husband was brought to the US by his parents who were escaping a totalitarian state. They wanted a better life for their children. I and my children are the beneficiaries of these choices together with this country’s freedoms. It’s an honor to express my gratitude for all that on this semiquincentennial of US independence. Today presents an opportunity to reaffirm my place in this country’s history — a story rife with greatness and injustice, promise and betrayal — and its future, which remains wide-open.
To me, patriotism is a reciprocal relationship. I express my love of country through my willingness to hold America in its fullness. This version of patriotism is authentic to me in a way that mindless denial and flag-waving are not. It’s easy to love America while the marching bands are going by and the fireworks are going off. But how about as you learn about the massacre at Wounded Knee or the brutality in Selma or your own state’s founding constitution, the only one to explicitly exclude Black people? Or as you’re accosted, day after day, by the casual depravity in the Epstein files or corruption so flagrant and galling, you feel a silent scream rising up from your gut? Who could love that? Believe me, I get the urge to turn away from the very idea of patriotism. Chanting USA! USA! seems more like cult worship or Stockholm Syndrome. But to reject my relationship with this country is to disregard the bravery and sacrifices of my own family and countless strangers, all of which made my own life possible. My patriotism is not unlike my vow to nurture my marriage in sickness and in health. There are points in every long, committed relationship when one must reckon with reality in all its contradictions and complications. That is love in action. Today’s lurid performance of American “greatness” is a constant assault. I’m angry and tired, and often numb. But I’m not hopeless. I won’t let propaganda or algorithmic projections define my reality. And I won’t let a cruel, inept, crumbling administration usurp this day or sever my bond to this place I love, this magnificent, blood-stained land, this country my family chose over and over again. I’d love to hear your thoughts on today, or how you’re celebrating this moment (or not). Do you believe patriotism is reciprocal? Thanks for reading. I hope you and your family have a happy 4th of July. If this post spoke to you, please forward it to a friend, mention it on Notes or another social platform, or even just tap the ♡. Your participation is the best support.
About Parent of Adults | Archive | Referral Program | Manage your subscription
|
No comments:
Post a Comment