Author: creatinganationunited

My political views are multifaceted and despite having developed and expanded over time, have always been supported by a passionate drive for learning. What follows is a brief background about me including a few personal and political highlights because I think it is our collected experiences that guide our sense of perspective and understanding. Since I began to understand how our government works, I have struggled with what it means to be American, what it means to identify as an American, and what it means to be identified by someone else as an American. Each other these labels carry different connotations and include labels I can control as well as labels that others use to define me. My first memory of engagement with the American government was in 1992 and I was in 5th grade. Our class project was to write a letter to President Clinton about the need for the US to take a stand in support of Rain forest protection. I received a letter back and was thrilled, until I opened it. It was a typed letter thanking me for contacting the president, followed by about three paragraphs of typeface that had absolutely nothing to do with the environment. I was crushed. It was so impersonal and did not address the issue that I felt so passionate about (keep in mind I that I was naïve enough at 11 to believe that I would actually receive a personalized letter from the President of the United States). My parents watched news every night, usually on PBS sometimes followed by the news on either ABC or NBC (this was back in the 90’s when we only had 10 channels because my parents didn’t believe in paying money for television; so no cable). I remember watching the impeachment of President Clinton closely. I was frustrated because in some ways it didn’t matter (in the “business as usual, why do we care about his personal life” sense) and in some ways it really did (in terms of lying under oath and sexual harassment in the workplace – which I also sort of viewed as business as usual). Also, why do we (Americans) seem to consider admitting fault and apologizing demonstrative of weak leadership? When the 2000 elections came around, I stayed up all night slept little over the following 3 weeks even though I wasn’t of age to vote in the election. It mattered to me that the news wasn’t reporting properly and it seemed like our sense of democracy, which I believe is based on people voting, was falling apart on national TV. 9/11 happened three weeks in to my freshman year of college; I was in upset NY sitting in American Politics 101 when the first tower fell. I remember watching the second tower fall in the common room and worrying about my sister and her boyfriend (both worked in NYC), worrying for my newly made friends, (a lot of their parents worked and lived in the city), and feeling fear. What follows, represents how I felt about the country’s response to 9/11 and my response to those feelings. My perception of the government’s response, the American people’s response (or at the least some of its advertisement), combined with the continued propagation of manipulated information as a means for evoking fear, distrust, anger, and violence led me to move to Canada in 2003. I wanted to be a English teacher and I felt that I did not want to work toward teaching in a country that seemed to find answers in standardized testing and war. Running away felt really really good at the time and in 2004 I voted absentee ballot for John Kerry in Massachusetts knowing that my vote probably wasn’t going to get counted; however, as I said previously, I thought democracy relied on voting so it felt important that I vote. I was so sure Kerry would win and felt like I had really lost a part of my hope when he didn’t. I thought that the rhetoric used by George W. Bush and his administration successfully created so much fear in American citizens that they would willingly vote for someone who had openly lied to them. I would have thought that the offense would give rise to another impeachment rather than result in winning the popular vote. In 2008 I graduated from college and moved back home. I saw a canvassing job where I could work for the DNC and get paid; I didn’t really know what they meant by canvassing at the time. In Barack Obama, for the first time ever, I felt like I had found someone who really understood what it meant to be American. The idea that we could work together, unify the country, and be the change we want to see spoke to me in a way that no political official ever had. I still come back to his phrase, “We are not as divided as our politics suggest.” My experience on the campaign led to running various campaigns for Amnesty International, the ACLU, and OxFam America. Organizing and campaigning is exhausting so after 26 months, I quit. I was now in limbo; holding a Bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education but not holding the confidence to actually enter the classroom. I started working at Starbucks because of the health insurance while I figured out just what it was I was doing. At one point I teamed up with the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) to organize a state wide strike in protest of Starbucks (longer story). After speaking with a journalist from the Boston Globe and landing a front page article of the Business Section, the company made a formal statement and apology. While I was with Starbucks, I decided it was time for grad school where I finally found a way back to what has always been my calling. Teaching. I am currently a Teaching Assistant at a public high school. I work in a program within the school that is intended to help students with social-emotional and educational needs. I am not a teacher yet and I actually earned more at Starbucks as a Shift Manager than I do right now (I make $865 every two weeks). I love the program and I love the students, but in terms of education I am over qualified and in terms of experience I am underqualified. That brings us up to this year, 2016. I would like to share my personal feelings about the 2016 Election. Please keep in mind that what follows represents my own personal perspective and beliefs. I felt that the candidates that participated in the primaries and in the general election were unsavory in a variety of ways. In my opinion, Donald Trump didn’t win, Hillary Clinton lost (just so you aren’t freaked out by this statement, I am aware that for the second time in 16 years, and for the third time in the history of the United States, the President was not elected by the popular vote of the American people). I really feel like Hilary ran an awful campaign but it didn’t hurt my soul in the same way that Trump’s campaign did. I was really anger about the hate and violent rhetoric that people were spouting; but what was worse, was that Trump seemed to revel in it and encourage behavior that rose from hate and violence. In reaction to Trump’s campaign and my general disappointment with having to vote for Hillary, I used language in conversation that was disparaging, condescending, and argumentative. November 9th was a devastating day. How could my country actually elect a man who referred to Mexicans as “bad hombres”? I went to the Women’s March on Washington to stand in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of people and to let President Trump know that he would be held to a higher standard than he has ever held himself to in his life. Being surrounded by peaceful people and listening to speeches, helped me let go of my anger. And that brings us to Creating a Nation United.