American Legacy

The legacy of the United States is not built on kings or rulers. It’s built on the backs of the exploited underdogs who had enough and stood up to those who held all the power and wealth despite incredible odds and won. That legacy has been the banner by which extraordinary Americans have held as progress continued to move through our land. But then recently that progress stalled and America started moving backward.

Natives who had gained their citizenship in 1924 by the Indian Citizenship Act was cut out of voting with laws that demanded residential addresses, something not done in tribal lands. Black Americans and other minority groups were suddenly faced with unfair voting restrictions as though Martin Luther King Jr. never marched. Blatant abuse of power became the norm as federal nonprofits became political dark money havens. The First Amendment that demanded the separation of church and state suddenly was a law that protected Christian fast food restaurants that sold chicken.

The disenfranchisement in the USA is so strong that people truly believe the only power we have as Americans is our ability to vote. We forget that we are given power over our nation by the 10th Amendment. We assume that petitioning our government for a redress of a grievance only means marches, calls, postcards, etc. and forget that the US investigative agencies are part of our government. We have turned our backs on our spies who risk their lives for our nation and instead listen to the lies of lawyers and grandstanding politicians.

Is the American experiment done? Will our teenage attitudes cause us to lose the freedoms we hold so close to our hearts? Is it possible to become so divided that another foreign government can invade us if we break out into a Civil War? Do we no longer see neighbors when we look down our street and instead see enemies because they did not vote for our party? Have we become so party blind that we can’t see our nation as being anything else but #winning?

We cannot forget that America is very young compared to the rest of the nations. If we act like childish bullies who are selfish and win at all costs then we may find that pathway leads to jarring results that are not in the United States favor.