America is failing, and we aren’t waking up

Now, I know what some of you might say, “Oh, here comes another liberal telling us what to do or how to act”, or “Our media is run by a woke liberal!” I will address those remarks in a moment, but I can also assure you that this isn’t an article intended to target any particular group. Rather, this is simply an expression of what America was, what we have become, and how we can fix it. For many of us on campus, we grew up in the United States, the land where we were told we could obtain a good and affordable college education, affordable food, and a lifestyle that excelled beyond that of our neighbours and others worldwide. We were told that we were the best of the best, second to none. We even saw politicians from all sides coming together to actually sit down, talk and agree on certain issues. It seemed like everything was going well because that is what we were told in school. Yet, today we are seeing a complete shift from superiority through unity to superiority through class (whether it’s social class or physical looks).

The United States has gone through many changes since its inception. If you are a critical thinker and not someone who wants to blindly follow rhetoric, I would highly recommend Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States.” It is an amazing read that describes in detail how America has changed, but also who really founded it. Now, past that little shoutout, the US has changed a lot with regards to pretty much everything from slavery to immigration policies. But I won’t talk too much about that because that was not our peak, at least that’s what I hope we can agree on, because if you think slavery was peak America, then you have way more issues than this article can possibly address. The time I really want to talk about is the era of technological advancement. The 1950s through 1960s were an era that didn’t exactly have a stellar record of civil rights, but was nonetheless an era of the US that I consider absolutely crucial to America as a powerhouse. During this time, we still had relatively open borders, allowing for immigrants to find work in the US, whether it was from the southern border or from overseas. We had people from all over coming in not just to live in our nation, but to build it.

During World War Two, we had seen mass immigration from other parts of the world into our nation. Without that mass migration into our country, we would not have things like radars, nuclear technology, and much more. In fact, many historians say that we would be living in a very different world if we had not done what we did. This era of technological advancement after WW2 would not have occurred had it not been for the immigrants who brought their ideas, technologies, and talents to our nation. Around this time is when we had rockets from NASA, computers from IBM, new engineering techniques developed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and even architecture brought over by experts like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (yes, the Mies that designed our campus came here during WW2 to escape Nazi Germany). This technological advancement could not have been possible without the diversification of the United States during that era. People from all over the world, including those from places many right-wing Americans want to exclude from our country today, helped develop our nation into a place of true diversity. Very soon, we also saw the Civil Rights movement that allowed those very people to be treated the same as everyone else (or so it was supposed to be). It was even Ronald Reagan who mentioned a letter he received once saying, “…anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

Diversity is what made our country absolutely exceptional to many. It was the land of opportunity, a place where we could be free of terror, persecution, and where we could be who we wanted to be. America wasn’t just built for any particular kind of person; it was built for all. It’s why our founding fathers made sure to include freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of expression. The founding fathers never mentioned these freedoms and followed them with a “but.” They never mentioned that America was a Christian nation that was meant to persecute those who didn’t abide by certain standards or norms. Yes, they had slaves, but even they acknowledged that the issues of slavery had to change. It wasn’t until Lincoln that a President took the issue of slavery seriously, valuing humans over money. During the 50’s and 60’s, we saw a new shift in how we treat minorities. Immigrants are given grants to work in the US, people of color can attend the same schools as their white peers, and women begin to obtain more rights over their own bodies. We see that the attitude towards minorities becomes friendlier, and in the 70’s we see the rise of the Pride (LGBTQ+ Rights) movement. Yes, many opposed these changes in attitude, but we moved past that…or so we thought.

Today, a lot of these movements still exist, but our technological advancement has dwindled in America. Many conservatives find these movements obnoxious, unneeded, and at times violent. Yet they fail to ask themselves why it is that they still exist. Well, that’s what I am here to talk about, and how these very movements existing are not only contributing to the failure of our nation, but how many see them as an infection instead of a solution. See, a lot of conservatives attribute the failure of our nation to these movements like ANTIFA (Anti-Fascist), Pride, Feminism, and BLM (Black Lives Matter). The idea that these are organizations and groups that are here to terrorize and strike fear is absolutely wild to me, when pretty much the core of these organizations is to tell people to just be kind and empathetic human beings. The Pride movement was created and still exists because people continue to treat us queer folks as animals or aliens that don’t belong, when in reality, we are just like everyone else. We pay our taxes, we make money, we have struggles, and so much more. BLM and other such civil rights movements continue to exist because, as a society, we still refuse to treat people of color or women as our equals when they have to work twice as hard to get half as far. If you ask me, I find it childish and obnoxious when I hear someone refuse to use they/them for a friend when all it takes is a small change in label and a literal quarter second more time to say.

These movements are at the core of us as a nation, too, as they are the freedom of expression that we are allowed by our own Bill of Rights. It’s not like we want to have that taken away from others, because these groups arguably need this right more than others during a time when bigotry is running far looser than it has in the past 3 decades, more so than it is about how you use it. If you want to push a bigoted narrative on live television through Fox News (which, if I may remind some of you that Fox News is legally an entertainment and satire channel, and not a legitimate source of news), you should have every right to do so. I am not saying that is correct or objectively right, but you should be able to do that because that is what our country’s founding fathers wanted to provide to us. Now, freedom of expression does not mean freedom from consequences, but it does guarantee that as long as you don’t outright promote terrorism against a population of people, you have every right to say what you want.

So many people want to blame these movements for America’s downfall, even making up names for them and calling them “woke,” which literally just means awake or aware of your surroundings. I even got called a communist for simply wanting to keep my right to marry a man, which, at its core, is to be treated like a heterosexual person would be treated. It’s because of inequities we are seeing today that we are facing a new crisis in America, and its not the immigration one our beloved president keeps talking about. Rather, it’s the fact that we have let go of our technological superiority simply because we didn’t want to pay everyone what they should be getting paid, or treating everyone how they should be treated. Now this is just one factor of many that are contributing to the downfall of our once great country, but it is definitely an important one. Corporate greed has driven our reliance on foreign nations like China to make our products, when they could very well be made at home. It’s why I understand the sentiment that the president has when it comes to American jobs and industry; however, my understanding of his policies ends there. When America was the industrial and technological powerhouse of the world, we saw college education that cost us no more than $700 per semester, $50,000 homes that could fit a family of four, and even cars that were made stronger and better than our modern-day vehicles that were worth no more than $5,000.

It was a time that gave our nation an upper hand in the world, and at the perfect time when we began to embrace diversity and culture. It truly was our peak, and yet many don’t see what we could’ve had if we simply kept pushing further. Corporate greed drove jobs away because companies didn’t want to pay for quality work. They wanted mass production that would make them more money and pay their workers the same. We began to embrace cheap goods that are made by children or 8-month pregnant mothers, all while trying to survive on a wage that is no longer enough to sustain a family, let alone an individual. Capitalism became what it wasn’t meant to be, pushing out the idea of diverse businesses and competition, and bringing forth an era of greed where competition was considered unhealthy. Competition is what drove our economy and advancements in the first place! We wouldn’t have rockets, planes, or computers if it weren’t for the fact that we could do better than the competition. Our very own Martin Cooper saw the telephone and thought that he could do better and make the phone wireless. Its not like this advancement came without diversity because we even saw how a group of black women helped advance our rockets during the space race, as seen in the movie “Hidden Figures.”

We let this advancement go in favor of consumerism, letting others take the helm that we once held, many of which would not have created anything had it not been for the technology that we developed in America. Now, I am not saying that we should punish those nations that took over our industrial and technological complex, but I am saying that we should start bringing back that work to America so that we can actually start to provide our people with our own work. We should start to invest in helping our country build its capital again and build up its workforce to set it up for a new era of work within the new technological advancements that are to come. It is not too late! While there are nations that do seek to overtake us in our technology and workforce resilience, America is still capable of making sure that does not happen if we simply stop looking in the wrong direction.

Our country can take back its number one spot in the world for economy and industrial complex if we simply stop pushing the rhetoric that the root of our problems is religion, skin color, sex, or sexual preferences. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric has constantly pursued non-existent social issues that have absolutely zero influence over the true success of our nation. These non-issues are deeply rooted in bigoted and antiquated ideas that pursue those who simply want better lives and want to be a part of society, just like everyone else. This rhetoric is further pushed and subsequently legitimized when it is attached to a religion. America isn’t the first to do this. Iran, during its revolution, pushed similar rhetoric using Islam. China has done this to Uyghurs, Christians, and others since Mao Zedong, and even England did this to Northern Ireland because of their Catholic faith. These are all similar to what Trump and his supporters are doing because they have been taught that this is the only way to fix our country. But many forget that diversity is what built this country. Immigrants built this country, and to those who say they came here legally, immigration laws didn’t exist until the turn of the century, in the late 19th century, when we started the Chinese Exclusion Act. We had open borders for years and had no problems. We hadn’t even thought of gay people until we started to scrutinize them using religion.

America can recover its exceptionalism in the world if we simply stop looking the wrong way. If Trump really wanted to “make America great again,” then we wouldn’t be seeing polarization of populations, deportation of immigrants, or the ending of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies. We would be encouraging our co-patriots of different sexes or skin colors to help each other and work together. We would be accepting hard-working immigrants into our country to not just give them a chance, but give us a chance too! We would be encouraging DEI practices, not to “reserve” jobs as many right-wing media have claimed DEI does, but to allow funding to go to schools that teach majority minority student populations and offer the ability for minorities to get a shot at college educations and opportunities that would’ve otherwise been closed because they come from underprivileged areas. Believe it or not, if you come from a small farm town with a high school that can barely provide textbooks, you are part of that pool of students who are here thanks to DEI, regardless of your skin color.

We can make America great again, but we have to stop arguing about who we can marry, what skin color you have, or why sex you were assigned at birth. We have to start critically thinking about what is it exactly we are failing at. I have a shortlist from healthcare, public transit, technological occupations, and many more, though there are far more things America lacks that don’t necessarily require federal dollars or involvement from the general worker. They require simple changes in how our government responds to private companies that seek to monopolize an industry and then abuse its workers. Our lives don’t suck because we have a blue-haired barista at Starbucks serving us an $8 coffee and asking for a tip. Our lives suck because Starbucks pockets $6 of those $8 and refuses to pay their workers a fair wage that can support their lives. We also need their part owners, like Blackrock, to stop gouging people for their money to live in their owned properties, some of which may be those very baristas! It’s great that some people can be very successful and earn their money through their smart decisions. But to an extent, their money stops coming from their hard work and starts coming from their greed.

So, I now speak to conservatives who may be reading this paper. Do you really think our problems originate from gay people wanting to get married, or do our problems as a nation originate when we stopped making things and creating substantial jobs that can pay for our lives? Because I can tell you right now, if you check history books, it’s the latter in every case. Now I would address the quotes at the beginning of this piece. If you want to call me woke, then go ahead, I am wide awake and now exactly what it is I need to do to help make my country, my home, a great place once more. If you think I am trying to tell you what to do, it’s because I am! It’s not for me, but for us as a people, something Democratic politicians need to learn how to do (instead of writing strongly worded speeches). To every conservative out there, wake the heck up! This isn’t an article about eating the rich, but rather about teaching the rich that we can be strong when we work in unison. We should be working as one people if we really make our country great again, and it starts by putting aside our societal differences, working to build our workforce again, and telling our government and the rich who control them what it is exactly that we need. It doesn’t matter what political party you are on anymore, it’s about whether or not you truly care about making your country great again, because the ones in office controlling our country right now certainly do not. If we don’t change our ways soon, pretty soon we will feel what it means to be in a country that is doomed to fail. We still have time. Wake up!

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