I Wish to…

Dear America:

I live in another country but I know your language. I know it quite well. I know it perhaps better than most of your citizens and that is interesting if not rather sad. Why is that do you think?

I know your history and I feel that I know your people. In my mind I have walked to the edge of the Grand Canyon; I have stood before the silent figure of your Mr. Lincoln and felt his greatness all about me; I have walked the streets of your vibrant New York City and visited it’s many wonderful places; I have run into the waves crashing in on your beaches in the sunny states of Florida and California; I have driven a car from coast to coast and stopped, without papers needed, at all of the little towns and simple attractions across over 2000 miles; I have witnessed such openness and beauty in the endless fields and the many farms; I have cheered at your games of baseball, football, hockey, basketball, and, yes, of course my own beloved soccer; I have traveled down your mighty rivers, climbed your lofty peaks, hiked your deepening forests, and sailed your greatest lakes; I have felt the freedom of selecting my own home to live in, of voting for the person of my own choosing, of being able to go where I choose and say what I feel. I have lived within you for all of my life and yet have never been able to bring myself, actually, to your welcoming shores.

Until now.

Now I have been given such a wonderful chance to finally depart the land of my birth, where I was born and raised with such restriction and such want and need that went always unattended. Now I have been given the opportunity to finally realize my deepest dream of coming to America.

But I do have some questions for you. I do have some concerns.

I have heard that some of my rights to speak out, to speak what is on my mind, will not be allowed; that the rules have been changed recently and no longer follow your wonderful Constitution. Is this true?

I have been led to believe that now a man, or a woman, is indeed treated according to the color of his or her skin but for different reasons than what so many died to help eliminate. Is it true that the balance of opportunities is no longer in balance and that people still separate on the basis of race and that this is done not by the people of no color but by those who would have one believe that slavery still exists? I thought this slavery was an evil thing and had been eradicated but it seems perhaps I was mistaken.

Is it now also true that the Christian faith, one that I have had to practice in strict and dangerous silence unless I wished to be executed, is now under more than a little oppression? That the only religious activities free from censor are those belonging to the Muslim faith? That Christian religious expression is now being censored by those who believe in something else and also those who believe in nothing else? Could this be true of a country that was founded in part to escape such censorship and persecution? Could this indeed be true of a country that was founded in large part based upon those Christian principles?

And I also understand that a man or woman must already possess power and resources beyond simple reason to be able to contend for and attain public office? How does this ensure that those with no means are properly represented in your representative republic?

Is what I see on your entertainment channels really what is being presented to and consumed by your impressionable young people? Do they really do these things and act this way?

Is it also true that I will not be allowed to decide where and how my children are to be educated and that your institutions of learning are now filled with the type of propagandists that I had hoped to leave behind me? And that they are actually more sinister and devious than the blatant and visible influencers that we have here in my country?

Is it a fact that your information outlets are now largely state aligned or controlled and that many efforts have been made to demonize or even outlaw those with a differing viewpoint or those who simply wish to report and relate the truth?

Is it in fact now true, my dear America, that your wonderful Constitution, the one I have managed to read over and over and over again, is being attacked and systematically dismantled?

Is it the truth that I will not be able to express my belief in a family that consists of one man and one woman who come together to have children whose upbringing and future are solely the responsibility of that man, that woman, and the children themselves when older? Is it true that your government is now so very intimately involved in how the children are taught, and fed, and treated, and influenced? Why would they wish to have such control and why would you move to allow it to happen? Dear, dear America…

Is it now a fact that I would be not allowed to express my opinions on things like your gay marriage laws? Or that I would be not allowed to be critical of your President because I would be accused of being what you call a racist? Or that I will be not allowed to have free choices regarding the medical treatments for me and my family since they would be controlled and allocated by appointed officials? Or that I would have no say in what is being taught to my children at their schools? Or that I would be called a sexist if I said that I did not believe in spending my tax monies on things like birth control and abortion? Or that my first and final position of employment would more than likely to be with one of your government institutions? Is it true that if I did not have work that I would be taken care of and all needs provided and how exactly do you do this? Or that I would be made to go through your strenuous but fair methods for gaining entrance to your country while those who have entered illegally will soon simply be stamped as citizens? And that more and more of the information coming to the citizens will be in alignment with and controlled by government officials? And that the strength of your military will continue to be constantly eroded even at a time when it seems it is likely to be needed the most?

Oh, these things I have been hearing of late my dear, dear America and these things have me worried beyond what you might imagine.

You see, many of these things are what already exist in my own country except for a few exceptions. Only one religion is allowed here and not believing is not a choice. Sexism does not exist as our women have no rights. Gay relationships are punished in the extreme- it is simply not even allowed. Freedom of expression is not allowed to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Economic opportunity is not available as only the very privileged are given the chance to succeed; they are actually guaranteed success though no one is allowed to openly discuss this fact. We have no free elections here. Life is allowed at the discretion of the state here- it is not guaranteed. Freedoms are not provided; allowances are.

Why have you done all of this my dear America? Why have you let your government grow so big and their influences to grow so strong and pervasive? Why have you put into power the people who only serve to move you and your country farther away from the basic freedoms once protected by the stewards of your wonderful Constitution? Why have you allowed and even coerced your religious beliefs and institutions to fade while allowing the decadent and demeaning segments of your culture to flourish? Is it all about money, power, and control? Why do you continue to allow your tremendous economy and entrepreneurial spirit to fall behind that of other, more oppressive, nations? Why do you work to subjugate yourselves to the whims and wishes of the lesser regimes that exist across this tarnished world? Where is that shining city on the hill that your Mr. Reagan described so beautifully when I was in my youth?

Why, my dearest America, why? I do not understand. Here, the all-powerful government, the leadership grants to us allowances; there, now, with you it is the people who are giving the allowances to the government so that it can grow large and devour what remains of your freedoms. Why, why..?

For now, I suppose that I will continue to live in the land of my dreams within the secret recesses of my mind. That America never changes. Staying here is not what I would have wished to do but at least here I know what we are, and that is terrible, but I can have some slim hope for what might come. From the depths of the pit even the slightest of light provides hope. With you, my dear America, I have seen in my mind and known in my heart what you have once been to me and the millions more like me, but I fear that I see, with little hope for any change, what is too soon to come. Why do you decide to descend into the pit from which so very many of us seek escape? Why?

Such a waste, such a travesty. You were the last, best hope of mankind my dear, dear America but it seems that you have decided not to be.

I hope my English was good enough…