The Stone Soup of America Has Gone Cold

I’m not a historian and didn’t even play one on TV.

But I remember some of the history I learned in elementary school and from the many books I read back then about the founding of the United States.

Some of it was propaganda to an impressionable kid. But the one thing I came away with was that our country is a grand experiment, unlike any other country ever and it left me wondering what it might become during my lifetime.

We were taught that we were a “melting pot” of immigrants from all over the world and that was what made us such a great country. People took huge risks to come here for numerous reasons such as war, natural disasters, religion, politics or just to make a better life. This was a “free” country where you could pave your own way. No more kings or dictators.

We were taught that these people, so diverse in their knowledge and experiences, were what made us the greatest nation ever. Each one brought something to add to the stone soup that made the United States of America. My all-white elementary class was told that we lived in a country that could accomplish anything.

The Rest of the Story

However, there were no discussions about how the country was stolen from the people that were here already or that racism was a problem this country could not seem to end. Slavery was only discussed minimally, usually in context to the Civil War. Back then it was more important to memorize the Gettysburg Address. We learned more about racism watching TV.

As we grew older, we were exposed to a lot of things that made us wonder about what we had been taught. The Vietnam War, inflation, pollution and guns were just some of the things that influenced our lives that we weren’t prepared for.

But the country muddled along, trying desperately to provide the American Dream of success and happiness while dragging along its unresolved legacy of social problems. Still, as a senior citizen, even with all the changes I’ve lived through, I’ve always been proud to be a U.S. citizen.

Until now.

Now I’m not sure how to feel about the country. Leaders seem hell-bent on changing so many things, often overnight, that we can’t keep up with them. Maybe that’s the intent. Act fast and break things under the claim of national emergencies.

We were never taught that there was such a thing as a presidential order. We were taught that Congress and the president had to work together when making laws and changing them. The courts are there to ensure conformity to the laws.

This year is still young and already many of the efforts to make life better are either disappearing or are already gone. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) was the first to go. I hadn’t even heard of the acronym until last year. It’s another attempt to improve fairness to everyone. And I believe our county’s strength is its diversity.

The Merit Factor   

But to scrub national history of anything that could be deemed DEI-related? Who gets to decide that? I think we read about this in dystopian novels. Now, at least for government jobs, if 20 people apply for the same job, merit is to be the deciding factor. Who decides on what that merit is? If two people have the same merit, which one gets hired – the young man or the older woman in a wheelchair? It makes me wonder how many members of the administration cabinet would be chosen based on merit only.

I can’t wait to travel to the Gulf of Mexico to see what it looks like now that it has been renamed the Gulf of America. I didn’t know a president could do that unilaterally. I don’t think I’ll take a vacation anywhere outside the country for awhile, including Canada. Someone might spit in my soup.

I don’t think the factory jobs expected to come to this tariff- and wall-protected country will be acceptable to America’s next generation of workers. Maybe robots will do the work. There won’t be any immigrants left to do it.

And shame on me for driving an electric car when I am supposed to be driving a gas-burning vehicle. I will henceforth forego paper straws and low-flow shower heads. I will still get every doctor-recommended vaccination, however. And I hope my foreign-adopted kids will not be deported.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to go back to an America like the days of my youth. But it doesn’t take me long to decide that I don’t even want to go back to yesterday. I wonder what my folks, who were Republicans, would think of all this.

If there are concerns about the laws and processes of this country, shouldn’t the wheels of legislation and justice turn, however slowly, to create consensus instead of some overnight orders? We’ll gladly wait. Our elementary teachers told us the checks and balances of federal government would safeguard our democracy. I want to still believe that.

Kids may get fewer toys this Christmas because of tariffs but we can afford a military parade on our fearless leader’s birthday. Maybe it’ll be paid for with his cryptocurrency.

We don’t need any of this. America is great already.