America Is ...

America is a dream. It’s not real. It’s a concept. It’s a vision of a shining city on a hill, conceived of by impudent children berthed by tyrants. America is the ridiculous notion that Lady Liberty wears the only legitimate crown, and her court extends to all lands. America is the petulant assertion that men should always lead, but never rule. She is as much stars and hype as she is stars and stripes. America is George Washington, and she cannot tell a lie. She’s Thomas Jefferson’s slave mistress sitting under his tree of liberty. America is stacks of dead Indians on a forgotten frontier and the restless souls that loiter around highway billboards: Apache Jim’s Fine Crafts and Liquor Store – 18 miles, Exit 56. America is a bullet in the back of the brain and the loud crack of the shot echoing off the theater walls, saying “Free at last … Free at last.” She’s an almost-empire, benevolently spreading seeds. She’s the newspaper men who deliver the pictures to the people who deliver the war to themselves. She’s a sunken Lusitania, and she’s the great battlefields where devil dogs were born of cold steel and death. America is great treaties. She’s the greed and complacency that gave rise to the Third Reich. She’s a bubble burst and a sudden recommitment to one another. She’s the negro runner throwing inconvenient truth in the face of distorted ideology. She’s sacrifice and glory in the jungles of Okinawa and on the shores of Normandy. She’s a sailor kissing a nurse because the world is alive again. America is an Interstate Highway System and all the car manufacturers that fill it. She’s the profit margins, the bottom line; she’s prosperity and peril. America is not now, nor has she ever been a communist. She’s a whispered warning of a military industrial complex, and she’s the deaf ears upon which it fell. In America, you ask not what your country can do for you, but ... but … I forget the rest – just don’t ask what your country can do for you. America is not moving to the back of the bus because her feet are tired. America is sinking imaginary boats in a gulf so she can watch napalm fireworks on the 4th of July. She’s warrior pacifists in tie-dyed armor and flower fortresses. She’s peak oil and cars lined up for gas. She’s angry Arabs saying “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” America is King David stepping atop the giant he just felled and asking, “Do you believe in miracles?” She’s mushroom clouds and evil empires. America can’t recall if she had anything to do with all those bad things. She swears on the Bible. America is the fallen wall, and she’s all the people who tore it down. She’s overwhelming air power and laser guided strikes on CNN. She’s a soiled dress and a restless press. She’s the vacuum effect of the collective gasp as the pancake cascade of commerce comes crashing toward us, our eyes wide with horror and amazement. America is her own crescendo of crass nationalism. She’s a plea to go to Disneyland – for your country. America eats yellow cake when it’s fed to her. She is shock and awe. And she is the feeble tongue fumbling for the words to explain the breaking wave of faith. She’s the brave soul who left a bag of money on a football field to die for an ideal. America is fair and balanced. She’s the place for politics. America is warrantless wiretapping and national security. America is about drinkability, and she’s brought to you by Pepsi. America is a Chinese kid in a sweat shop making Michael Jordan’s underwear. She’s a banker betting on another banker betting on double zero every spin. She’s pixels on a ticker causing panic and uncertainty. She’s the would-be-messiah stepping from the burnt ashes and rubble of a once great country. She’s the hopes and dreams of a people praying that theirs is a future of prosperity. America is ...