I was born in the United States of America and grew up here. 

The South Bronx, to be exact. 

From an early age, I was taught that this nation was the greatest in the world. 

No doubts about it.

In Catholic elementary school (1954-1962), we were taught to 

“…pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” 

The flag, patriotism, god, country, exceptionalism. 

These words were blessed to inspire us to stand up for our nation, community, neighbors, and the American Way. 

We were taught to follow the elected government and the President without reservation, without questions, and mindlessly 

Our heritage and our magnificence as a nation lie in the history textbooks that highlighted all the accomplishments before us

the Declaration of Independence 

“…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”,

even as we discovered another truth in Fact-check: Those who signed the Declaration of Independence — nearly three-quarters also owned slaves

and the American Revolution, the Constitution of the United States 

“Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, about 25 owned slaves…” 

“…According to surviving documentation, at least thirteen presidents were slave owners at some point during their lives: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant.”

As we celebrate the 250th birthday of this nation 

built on the stolen lands of Indigenous people 

and on the backs of people stolen from the African continent and sold into slavery,

the exclusion of women,

Indigenous people

“…Trail of Tears. Over 10,000 Native Americans died during removal or soon upon arrival in Indian Territory.”

Oh, Andrew Jackson, you scoundrel

and Black people (You robbed our lives) from participating fully in the rewards of this nation

even while you exploited us and killed us when you had no more use for us, bleeding and dying

you fought a civil war, a divided nation with one side protesting slavery and the other side resisting the end of it

and both sides afterward turning a blind eye to the horrors of a post-Civil War Reconstruction era in the name of Jim Crow laws and the genocide

From 1882 to 1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the U.S., according to records maintained by the NAACP. 

Still, it's impossible to know for certain how many lynchings occurred because there was no formal tracking. 

Many historians believe the true number is underreported.

The national character of that period, that flowed so easily from

the exploitation of workers, the fight to bar laws and regulations that would protect them, 

the two world wars to make freedom ring 

no Black people need to apply, but if you did, you could not fight alongside white soldiers because you don’t need to share the spotlight of heroism with anyone else, 

so when you watch war movies, you can see for yourself who the real heroes are, the ones fighting for freedom and the American Way

except where it doesn’t apply to women, people of color, and Indigenous people. 

And nowhere in this nation since World War II did you even try to portray the truth of America’s messy history, whether in textbooks, television shows, or movies, because it is easier to live with a lie than to confront the truth while celebrating your European history and culture 

to the exclusion of the other's history and culture

Control the Culture, Control Your Mind

Europe occupies 3,837,000 Sq. Miles of the earth’s surface, or 6.7% 

ignoring the oldest civilizations 

The Indigenous Peoples of Australia, circa 50,000 BCE) 

Jiahu, circa 7000 BCE – 5700 BCE 

Mesopotamia, circa 3500 BCE – 500 BCE 

The Indus Valley Civilization, circa 3300 BCE – 1900 BCE 

The Ancient Egyptians, circa 3150 BCE – 30 BCE 

The Maya Civilization, circa 2600 BCE – 900 CE

And through the sixties and seventies, the chants for recognition of equal rights, equal history, and equal culture for all non-white people were deemed a bridge too far,

So you grudgingly laid back, kicking the can of anti-color down the road, while you did nothing in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to provide serious solutions 

while claiming the alternative history of exceptionalism as the only true history when claiming that history is expedient, 

all the while going bat-shit crazy when a half-Black, half-White man is elected President, and you fret and protest about being forced to drink someone else's tea (bags) when all you really want is some good old American Budweiser,

none of that un-American, nonwhite, mixed-race culture shit whose only goal, you tell yourself, is to extinguish the white race

“Eventually, whites will become a minority, dropping below 50% of the U.S. population in around the year 2045"

thereby giving rise to the hysterics of Christian White Nationalism, Donald Trump, and the ever-present American Nightmare 

Facing the Challenge of Fascism in this, and the next election year, we are must decide something greater than anything that I have ever faced since I was able to vote in 1966, 

a choice between the appearance of a functioning Democracy 

and the real, more than a threat but a promise of Fascism Undisguised, to ensure that power stays with those who will profit most from the waves of the flag, the star-spangled banner, the pledge of allegiance to the illusion of a mystical America, 

bombs bursting in air, celebrating an independence for the few at the expense of the many, 

and behaving as if it’s all heartwarming, hand-on-your-heart patriotism, 

when it is nothing more than a reality show called America that will soon be canceled.

America, Do Better.