Expensive America,
We have to discuss. First, I wish to congratulate you in your 250 years of being. It’s not simple for any nation, not to mention a worldwide superpower, to even final that lengthy but earlier than heading off to bask within the limitless praises you’ll face, I’ve a number of issues to get off my chest.
I welcome your presence because the chief of the free world and respect your beliefs of freedom, equality, and democracy. The constructing blocks of the American Dream the place anybody can begin from nothing and change into profitable by way of exhausting work and willpower beneath the safety of our establishments.
But it’s unimaginable to disregard the foundations of this nation that have been constructed upon oppression, exploitation, slavery, struggle, and dying. That very same dream has benefited my mother and father, but my technology has been left behind.
Much more in order the son of Latino immigrants, once I remembered how my mother and father all the time instructed me how they struggled of their dwelling international locations as they grew up in poverty, and like thousands and thousands earlier than and after, they got here to you as a result of they knew of its boundless alternatives, and our household prospered from the advantages of the American Dream. But our new dwelling beforehand sponsored coups towards democratic governments alongside different types of political and financial turmoil in Latin America and the world over beneath the notion of stopping communism.
Rising up, I remembered how the founding fathers have been deified, introduced as good, immortal gods who represented our core values, but they have been additionally flawed mortal males who didn’t all the time comply with their very own ideas. They drafted invaluable paperwork such because the Declaration of Independence, the Structure, and the Invoice of Rights, with concepts of liberty and democracy that also resonate and encourage generations. But among the writers behind it additionally owned different human beings, and the proper to vote was initially unique to white male property house owners resembling themselves. It was not till an untold quantity of combating that voting rights have been expanded, but there are nonetheless these on this nation who lack this elementary proper as proud residents.
It’s unimaginable to disregard your paradoxical nature that contributed to our success and your smash if left unchecked.
Earlier than me stand two camps on reverse ends. One which screams “Demise to America,” calls you the Evil Empire, a tyrannical regime to be overthrown. The opposite that treats you as an ideal utopia, town on the hill that may do no improper, the place blind loyalty is predicted as even a easy acknowledgment of your sins is handled as heretical. For me, I comply with a novel path distinct from each of those extremes. There are those that declare that we’re on the finish of historical past, that you’re everlasting and can by no means die. Is it not what the Romans considered themselves throughout the peak of the Pax Romana, together with numerous empires earlier than and since, at their golden age? As oceans rise, empires fall, and thru all of it — are we no completely different within the grand scheme of historical past regardless of your self-professed exceptionalism? Now, much more in order we face the twilight years of your golden age, the Pax Americana, historical past will name. I’m wondering how those that come after us will navigate your legacy amid an limitless sea of contradictions.
As I now discover myself between a nationwide stalemate fueled by division and hyperpartisanship, I lie conscious excited about what sort of path you’ll quickly take. Will the nationwide experiment proceed and guarantee democracy lives on in your veins, or will your establishments collapse from neglect and corruption till all that’s left is unchecked tyranny? Whenever you lastly go the best way of previous empires, and all that continues to be are your stays, how will the world see you then? Will you be remembered or misplaced within the sands of time? I can’t absolutely reply that, however right here’s my take. I ask myself whether or not you might be certainly the Rome of the trendy world, particularly because you possess the technological, navy, and cultural may of your predecessor on the worldwide stage, and, if that’s the case, maybe there’s a likelihood that as your establishments slowly die, your spirit will keep alive. Have a look at Rome and the way, regardless of its fall, its legacy nonetheless survives at present by way of its tradition, legislation, and language.
America, you’ve got performed a lot for the world that your highs and lows will likely be remembered ceaselessly. Personally, I acknowledge your standing as Nova Roma (New Rome) and provides credit score on your accomplishments, however I do know of your previous misdeeds not out of spite however out of affection. I consider that you are able to do higher and {that a} brighter future awaits us if the proper steps are taken. What sort of steps, it’s possible you’ll ask? That once more I can’t say. Simply one thing to consider.
Frank Granda, 22, San Diego, CA
As a part of a collaboration between The Latino Information Community, The Fulcrum’s NextGen initiative and Made By Us, LNN is publishing Letters to America, a collection created by way of the Youth250 challenge that invitations Gen Z to mirror on the nation’s previous, current, and future as america approaches its 250th anniversary.
<p>The put up Letter to America: Progress, Power, and Paradox first appeared on Latino News Network.</p>
