Sunday, May 09, 2010
Marcus Bridgewater, a retiring ex-patriate, has returned to the country of his birth. Mr. Bridgewater offers his reactions after a long absence.From his piece, The America I Left, he writes:
"I was filled with a sense of relief to be back in my home country after a long trip abroad."
[snip]
"As I loaded up my Netbook, I couldn't help but gasp at the news that awaited me. Not even twenty-four hours earlier, I had been answering questions about the beauty of American political freedoms. Now, on my home soil, I would be greeted with the news that a handful of students were thrown out of school for wearing shirts featuring the American flag, a spectacle made complete by the ensuing protest by Hispanic students marching against free, patriotic speech."
[snip]
"If anyone takes wearing an American symbol in America as an insult, they are welcome to return to their country. That is, if they can. Mexico has far more strict, racist and unfair immigration laws than the Arizona one so many people are protesting...Don't even get me started on Cuba. Very few people know about these laws, because the one or two people crazy enough to try to sneak into Mexico or Cuba are probably still languishing in jail without formal charges."
[snip]
"Perhaps Ahmadinejad will take this opportunity to blast the United States, but I'm pretty sure Iran is busy spinning centrifuges and explaining to the families of the women they've stoned for "indecency" that they are actually very well respected protectors of feminine advancement (thanks to the West)."
Then Bridgewater kicks you hard in the stomach with this sentence:
"The America I have returned to is not the one I left. Although I've been living abroad, it was not until now that I felt homeless."
Do you feel as ashamed as I do that this man feels homeless? Or do you feel homeless too?
It’s not just the punks in the streets, it’s the punks in Congress and, yes, that punk in the Oval Office who are imperiling our freedom and seizing from us the country we know and love. I want that America back for Mr. Bridgewater, for my father who sacrificed so much in World War II and the Korean Conflict and for my mother who immigrated to this country and was proud to become a naturalized citizen of the greatest nation on Earth.
No one will tell me to sit down and shut up. No one. Remember November. No one should feel homeless in the land of his birth. No one.
"Perhaps Ahmadinejad will take this opportunity to blast the United States, but I'm pretty sure Iran is busy spinning centrifuges and explaining to the families of the women they've stoned for "indecency" that they are actually very well respected protectors of feminine advancement (thanks to the West)."
Then Bridgewater kicks you hard in the stomach with this sentence:
"The America I have returned to is not the one I left. Although I've been living abroad, it was not until now that I felt homeless."
Do you feel as ashamed as I do that this man feels homeless? Or do you feel homeless too?
It’s not just the punks in the streets, it’s the punks in Congress and, yes, that punk in the Oval Office who are imperiling our freedom and seizing from us the country we know and love. I want that America back for Mr. Bridgewater, for my father who sacrificed so much in World War II and the Korean Conflict and for my mother who immigrated to this country and was proud to become a naturalized citizen of the greatest nation on Earth.
No one will tell me to sit down and shut up. No one. Remember November. No one should feel homeless in the land of his birth. No one.
No comments:
Post a Comment