America I am Sad

America, I am sad. 

  Tears swell in my eyes as I dream of what I was taught the red, white, and blue were supposed to mean. The land of the free and the home of the brave - what our soldiers fought for. The pledge I stood for every day of my childhood, hand on heart, repeating: “Liberty and justice for all.” Now at the age of 20, I can’t help but feel as if liberty and justice have become just for one. A man who we have let climb through our barricades and become our biggest threat, raised by our country, how dare he try to destroy it? 

America, 

We are the people of a nation that is no stranger to the term “When everyone comes together”. A mosaic of stories, cultures, skin tones, and prayers — we are the nation that shines at the Olympics because our strength is diversity. We held each other after hurricanes, after towers fell, after bombs shook the ground. Through it all, we stood firm in the liberation of what it means to be an American. This is who we were as a country. 

America, what have we become?

Treating our neighbor with such neglect, as if we are gold and they are the crumbs beneath our table. We label entire families “illegal” for daring to cross oceans and borders in search of hope. And forget that most of us descended from Ellis Island entries, handshakes, and paper promises.

I am in awe of their courage; they have earned my respect. My mama always said she would kill for me. I hope she would also swim through cruel waters and enter a new country, if it meant I’d have a better life.

Why are we criminalizing those who seek the American dream?

If I had to cross a border at age six, I’d hope the country on the other side wouldn’t see me as a threat. Now we look at children as if they possess anything more than pure innocence, as if they have caused their own problems.

We have turned humans into warnings, speaking about them like a storm is coming. 

As an American, I’ll tell you right now; The worth of a soul is not printed on a green card.

As an American, I must ask:   When did we lose sight of the stars and the stripes and the promise they once stood for?

I ask my fellow Christians, who are you truly worshipping?

Are you following the Lord — or idolizing a man in a fitted suit? A billionaire — but wasn’t it once said that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone like him to enter heaven? How could we have let him turn our religion against our faith?

 We follow Jesus of Nazareth, an immigrant, a Jew who helped the poor and hung out with imperfect misfits, not a man who created a blasphemous bible but could not solemnly swear on our real one. Jesus washed feet, humbled himself among the lowly, unlike the man who spews degrading words at those he views as beneath him. 

MAGA — can we face reality yet?

Or will the stock market crash again? 

Will we keep gutting our classrooms while claiming to care about the future?

Will reporters continue to be shot dead in the street for broadcasting what they observe for us all to see? 

MAGA… if the American in you is still there…When will you realize the freedom we are all so proud of has slipped through our fingers?

Freedom is lost when state governors are threatened with arrest when they do not 100% agree with the president.

Freedom is lost when a state senator is forced into handcuffs for asking a question.

Freedom is lost when the Media deems dissenting voices as lies.

Freedom is lost when even a video shows words coming straight out of his mouth is deemed fake news.

Freedom is lost when pixel by pixel, we are silenced by algorithms and power suits.

In America, we have lost our freedom, and I mourn in the way I imagined Jesus wept.

We must come together and remember.  

There are no kings in America; we left that behind centuries ago. There are no military parades, no war plan text message group chats, no pedophiles reigning the country, no ice raids for families who have been here longer than they ever were anywhere else, no deportations without due process, no election frauds, no book bans and no cutting funding to education while children get killed again and again.

Everyone belongs in America, but these things simply do not.

Let us remember who we are. Not just the dream, but the duty. Because patriotism is not worship. It’s accountability.