WE ARE THE WORLD

The population of the United States was 313,544,041 as of May 14 of this year.  82% of us live in cities and suburbs...  Four million more women than men... People under 20 make up over a quarter of the population, and people 65 and older make up one-eighth.  The nation still has a White majority.  In 2011, for the first time, non-white babies outnumbered white babies.

I love America.  I was born in America.  I expect to live out my life as a citizen of the United States of America. I am keenly aware that I am also a citizen of the world; but, of course, I do more closely identify with other Americans than I do with resident citizens of other countries. America is my home. I am fortunate to be a citizen here. I have enjoyed certain distinct advantages  because my birth certificate proves that I was born white and male in America.

I was listening to a Public Radio call-in program today when a self-identifying white man called to complain about “all those foreigners coming into the country demanding change.”  He went on to say that if “they don’t like the country the way it is, they should go back to where they came from.”  He apparently hadn’t noticed that many of the people hoping for change aren’t people who just got off the boat (or plane... or who just risked death crossing a hostile desert to get here).  I want change... now... here in America.  I long for a time when no child will suffer from malnutrition and hunger because of poverty. I am uncomfortable knowing that not all citizens have adequate safe shelter.  I am embarrassed that there are citizens of my country who, through no fault of their own, don’t get health care when they need it... and some of those citizens are children... and some are old people.  

  

I am as nostalgic as the next guy about the good old days.  I find myself telling younger folks about the time when cars didn’t have seat belts; about a time when a pleasant lady... a real, live lady in real time with a voice not digitized...  asked, “Number Please,”  when I picked up a telephone receiver (that was back when telephones had receivers that were distinct, separate instruments from the main body of the telephone); about a time when bare-headed children raced down hills on their bicycles; about a time when... It’s easy for “senior citizens” like me to come with dozens of examples of the way things used to be.

I like change. I don’t want to go back to the way things used to be... most especially to the ways things used to be that kept some people because of their race or ethnicity or gender from the privileges that I began to enjoy from the moment of my birth. I’m willing to give more to pay for those changes... and I’m willing to work to elect fellow citizens to political offices when they make it clear that they want equity and justice for all citizens as much as I do.

You've got to click on these two photographs to see them larger.  Looking closely makes a difference.