This is No Longer America
I am twenty-one years old, and I’ve lived in America, in the same town, my whole life. I am a citizen, I am white, and I am privileged. I never got into politics much aside from my own core beliefs of human compassion and empathy. I never felt a desire to. Yet now, our country is facing a crisis, and it is not one to take lightly.
America, or as it stands now, the hollow shell of America, has become a place of fear and violence. What was once a country that many fled to for safety and new opportunities has become the place that they now flee. Fear is commonplace. Unrest is just another normal day.
The country shifts with its people in tense anticipation of what is to come next. I no longer recognize the so-called land of the free. That star-spangled banner that once flew at liberty so proudly in the sky is now a symbol of oppression and violence to those innocent scapegoats, the sacrificial lambs. Our people are being profiled and unlawfully detained in the streets for the color of their skin or the way they speak. Our friends, our neighbors, our elders, our veterans, mothers, fathers, children, and everyone in between are no longer safe. Nothing is sacred. Nothing but the rich white men. They forget just what this country was built upon, or perhaps, they remember only the worst and bloodiest parts of it. Perhaps that’s what they idolize most.
Protests arise, a true phoenix from the ashes, yet that majestic bird is spat upon and caged with no remorse. Freedom of speech is now a caveat for violence, as more and more people are threatened and killed for exercising it. Our right to bear arms is now circumstantial. All humans have rights, but some have more rights than others. And yet, despite it all, the people speak out. Those who sit in their golden thrones, upon the bones and rotting corpses of those they were meant to lead and protect, fear the people; we outnumber them, and we are more than they will ever be.
Civil unrest continues as our citizens cry out for the injustice, for those who have perished fighting for what is right or simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their voices only grow, ringing out loudly, echoing in the hollow shell of what used to be America.
This is not a letter of nihilism, nor is it one that encourages the people to give up. Discord is sown through indecision, ignorance, and apathy. Instead, I wish this letter to be one of hope. Let the people never give up, for our hope is big brother’s fear. The tides are changing, and though the stress and panic may weigh us down, we are resilient. For those of us who are protesting and screaming for our voices to be heard, for those who help and protect in even the smallest ways we can, we are the only true Americans left. And we can be the ones to bring her back to life. May those who were violently killed for exercising their rights, though they will try to twist their stories and defame their characters, may they rest in peace knowing their mission will be fulfilled. Their lives should have never been sacrificed for a cause that should have never have had to exist in the first place. It is tragic and outrageous. However, I hope they rest assured that their deaths will be mourned and never in vain.
Change is coming, and America, she gasps with hope that she will one day become what she once stood for in the first place. From there, I believe a vast improvement is on the horizon for this country to become greater than ever before; we simply mustn’t give up. We will succeed, the people always do, and those people who sow disarray and promote violence, lest we forget, they are somehow human, will pay for all that they’ve done. Do not fear them as monsters or something above humanity; they are just men like the rest of us. There is no need to cower from such spineless sheep who only hurt those who can’t fight back, for they are the most pathetic and weak of us all. I do not believe in violence; it can only create more problems, but justice will be served properly, and the universal karmic debt will one day soon be paid. And we shall rejoice.
From an angry, yet hopeful, human being.
Alez Astor
Morro Bay
