I’m not the most outwardly patriotic person. I would like to have a flag on my front porch, but we’ve pretty much been too lazy to install a flag post. I realize how blessed I am to live the life that I do, and yet I more than often see the faults in our society over the blessings.
Many would consider my political beliefs to be to the left of center, and some would even consider them to be to the left of sane, but I simply follow where my values and morals lead me.
I see multiple faults in our society. We are the wealthiest country on the planet, and yet the income disparity is nearing third world levels. We have so much access to technology, and yet our healthcare system is seriously flawed, overly litigious, and incredibly unfair (despite the many benefits offered by the new system.) We have world class universities and yet children living in our cities cannot get access to even a competent public school system in which they can feel safe. (And no, I do NOT blame the teachers.) For the most part with the ways things are set up, wealthy kids will grow into wealthy adults, and poor kids will remain destitute. The odds are stacked in the favor of some at the detriment to others.
Surely we do not live in a perfect society.
And yet, I am still very proud of the country I live in, and I believe that I am very blessed to raise my children here.
And part of that reason has to do with Carlos (not his real name.) He was a student of mine a few years ago in a developmental class. It was the lowest class a student could take at the college level. The students spent the whole semester fine tuning their paragraph writing skills. Carlos was the son of immigrants, and English was not spoken in his home. He came from a sub-par school district, and he simply wasn’t prepared for college work, even at the level he was currently in.
For the entire first half of the term, Carlos did not turn in a single paper. When I would ask him about it, he would always come up with an excuse, usually not even a very good one.
And then all of a sudden he submitted a paper. And it was good. Really really good. I spent a good fifteen minutes googling this paper to check for plagiarism, but nothing came up. I was a bit wary, but I congratulated him on a job well done, and his eyes sparkled. That day in class, they had to start work on another paragraph, and I kept a close eye on him, watching him write so that I could see a concrete example of something he had just written so I could see if, indeed, he had written the last paper he submitted. And sure enough, this one was as good as the last.
I took him to the side, and I told him how strong his writing skills were. I don’t think his work had ever been praised before because he was over the moon. I had never seen such a look of pride in a student’s eyes before. And missing papers were no longer a problem. He would come early to class to work on them. He would always ask me to look at them before he submitted them. And he would always, always goad me for more praise.
He did well that term, passed my class, and moved on to the next level.
I don’t know what happened to Carlos after that or whether or not he graduated college. He could be finishing up a Bachelor’s degree right now, or he could have given up and could be barely getting by working in a restaurant or somewhere in retail.
But I like to think he made it. I know the odds are stacked against him, and I know that as a rule, kids like him don’t make it too far. The hurdles are just too high.
But the point right here is that he could have made it. He could have overcome his poor background, and he could be on his way to a stable middle class existence. He might be getting ready to raise children who will have advantages that he never even dreamed of as a child. And this is possible because here in America, really anything is possible.
We might have gross inequity, failing systems, and issues that seem impossible to overcome, but we are still the freest people to have ever graced the planet. And for that, we are all incredibly blessed.
So as you gather with families for picnics tomorrow and huddle on blankets under the night sky to take in the fireworks, be aware of that which you think needs to change in our society (because those opportunities are blessings as well) but also think about that which you are truly most grateful for. Those are the things worth fighting for and worth protecting. Those are the legacies we want to leave to our children.