America is our second home, a country I have been to more than any other and a country I often think about than any other. Its gaudy, brash press is never the America I have seen and felt. America is a ‘yes’ country. It is a place full of a confidence with a forward pointing mind-set and a sense of community and participation I rarely see in Britain. Its people are not its politicians and its divisive cruelties are not its future. It is a place where conversations can strike up at any time, where a shared story with a stranger is a social currency and the journey is better than the destination. It has its faults. But being proud of itself is not one of them.
The world of today finds itself balanced on precarious precipices. We demand change but bring very little of it ourselves. We hate systems we do not invest our time in to understand and mistaken the freedoms of expressions others worked for as a reason to calcify our darkest abilities to hate and divide. We report the emotions of a story and not its truth. We confuse reactions for actions. And we put more faith in the narratives of television shows than the granite history that surrounds us.
This election is not about man versus woman, a donkey versus an elephant or even orange versus powder blue. It is about pulling forward. Or not pushing back. It is about spectrums not locker rooms, a seat on the bus rather than a line in the sand. We can cry foul over a flawed career politician if the candidate who mocks, screams and divides is the TV show we want to all watch for the next decade. But the flawed career politician is still a politician, not a corporate bully with the repeated mantras of an episode recap of a show no-one should be watching anymore.
Take care America.
#ImwithHer #ImWithAmerica
