My family looks American on the outside. We're white, heterosexual, properly married, have nice enough jobs, a home, two kids and two dogs, but that's where it ends. Look closer and we quickly become part of America that doesn't count, that isn't REAL -- for whatever values of 'real' we have today.
We work in tech, not on a farm. We live in city (albeit a very small one). We are both much more educated than real Americans have any right to be, each of us holding multiple college degrees. He's closer than me in that he is male and his hobbies are video games, which I believe are currently acceptable to all Americans, but I'm a reader, builder, sewer, and even a circus performer on occasion.
I float on whims and am happy to try it all.
He loses too, in that real American category, because he takes me seriously, doesn't call me a nag or a ball-and-chain, doesn't degrade my hobbies, and, after twenty years together, still loves to spend time with me.
He does dishes and cooks because I'm often too distracted by whichever current project has my attention to remember that people need to eat. He takes care of our children as often as I do, and has always considered them a shared responsibility; has never called it babysitting because they are also his. They were, in fact, his choice. My line being the practical "if we're going to do this kid thing, we might want to consider starting soon because I'm about to hit the 'high-risk-pregnancy' age."
Our children were born when we were in our 30s, not our teens or twenties.
We are -- and the word is nearly too horrible to say without a sneer -- liberals.
And the worst part is that no matter how horrible that word is, we are so far from Real American that we still struggle to find the evil in our philosophies. There are 'Liberal Hunting Licenses' available online. You can buy them as bumper stickers. Search 'Conservative Hunting License' and you'll get real information about how to apply for a license to hunt so we must be evil.
I think it was a speech by Lincoln that contained the snippet that best describe my political views. By the people, for the people. That's it. That is the philosophy that turns us into things to be hunted and keeps us from being real.
It's the idea that we're Americans. It's the idea that there are 300 million Americans out there and they are all carrying our standard, our flag, and our brand. They are all American. It's not just me, it's not just the farmers or the college educated. It's all of us.
As liberals, we see America as a team sport rather than an individual scrabble to the top. All of us are important. All of us should be cared for and about. No American left behind. No American should starve or struggle to pay bills while being told they should be grateful for a job that doesn't pay them enough to live. They are Americans and should be treated with more respect than that.
How can we be great if we are letting Americans starve or die due to lack of medical care? How can we be great when we let people pretend that living their lives on their own is an AMERICAN goal? That forgetting to be grateful for all that our nation has given them is an acceptable sort of self pride. That screwing over the person with less helps our nation in any possible way.
Individualism may make a person great, but it will never make a nation great.
But those are the thoughts that make me wrong. That's what takes away my validity as a person and as an American and makes me a such a villain that the idea of shooting me is amusing enough to be plastered on someone's vehicle.
This is not here to explain anything. I can't explain since I cannot seem to understand. This is here to work through the hurt and anger I have about realizing that I am not real and that I do not count. I even spent my time in the military because I thought it was the right thing to do, but it doesn't matter.
I'm here as an Imaginary American trying to figure out when the country I loved became as Imaginary as me.
