Dear rest of the world. We’re still the best. Don’t pretend. Everyone still looks to one country as the biggest, most powerful, most influential. We’ve got problems abound, don’t get me wrong, but there is a reason we’re the constant bar.
America is this big, beautiful, half-empty promise of freedom, equality, and success of your own labors. That’s why it's “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. That’s why Gatsby died reaching for the green light in spite of the utter hopelessness or the drag of the rivers current, back still borne to the struggle.
Gatsby is hardly the perfect hero. His story far from sin-free. The moral is unclear but not entirely positive. But there is a reason Fitzgerald puts Gatsby’s story in America, under the shadow of New York City. Nowhere else could rags reach riches and yet still be so poor and morally bankrupt. It’s uniquely American. Not to be corrupt or greedy or in love; those are the flaws every human shares, problems every country faces. Nor is it the classic American Dream. Instead Gatsby represents the very essence of America to keep dreaming. That, not in spite of, but because we are so flawed, that we have this relentless flame of hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Gatsby is American because of his unrelenting capacity to dream.
Anyone who even slightly knows me knows how deep my love and pride for this country runs. I understand and applaud this idea of America first; we have loads of problems that need to be addressed. Proper funding and attention could (with relative ease) solve many of our deficiencies, from infrastructure to education, our energy policy to our tax policy. Immigration is included in that. [Let’s be real. Anchor babies are an abuse of the system. Student Visas should easily roll into extended visas or green cards. We should control the flow of illegals crossing a border, but we should make it easier to become a citizen.]
But let’s start with this baseline. America is a fucking amazing place to live. In a world filled with unstable systems that actively oppress and kill their citizens. In places where internet access is restricted or scrubbed. In cities that face daily threats of bombs or war, America is a first world country in most respects.
Next, I do want to make America great. [I’m ignoring the “Again” because frankly I don’t think we’ve ever been perfect and we sure as hell aren’t always the good guy. Looking at all the massacred Native Americans, the enslaved Blacks, the war-torn Vietnamese, the occupied Iraqis, and that one time we rounded up all Japanese people and put them in jail just because. I could go on.] But I want to make America great for all Americans. If we start limiting that with some sort of religious litmus test we fundamentally break what it means to be America.
Yeah. We’re far from perfect. But that’s okay! No one’s perfect, everyone makes mistakes, we all learn and do better. So we’ve made a huge mistake. A couple of them in a row. But it’s okay, we just need to start correcting them.
Like, look. When the immigration ban took effect, protests erupted. Lawyers worked pro bono to help anyone stuck at terminal 4, and they’re still milling about. Food and supplies were donated to the team from the most random of organizations. The Women’s March made history without a single arrest! When the New Yorkers saw anti-Semitic graffiti on the subway, someone spoke up and people pitched in to clean it up. Elected officials from everywhere are overwhelmed by the amount of calls and letters they are receiving.
Trust in yourselves. Trust in your country. Trust in each other. This is the greatest nation the world has ever seen; a messy collection of horrible mistakes on one good idea. We are equal. We are free.
I’d rather be here than anywhere else [Well, if anyone wanted to buy me tickets anywhere else, I could use the vacation]. I know the work in front of us will be bitter, arduous, and non-linear, but I’ll sing of the dreams of the perfect America that I keep catching glances of, even in the tumultuous time.