MY America

Ok, offical, it is.

I saw a poster this evening for an event called Taking Our America Back or some such Teabagger nonsense, (and, no, I will not call them the Tea Party because they're just clueless enough to have called themselves Teabaggers in the beginning).  It got me thinking about what "our America" means and I've concluded that MY America is not their America.

Busia (Grandma)

I come from a long line of hard-working Poles.  My father was born in Bavaria after his Polish parents were liberated from a Nazi work camp and nearly died of whooping cough on the ship to New Orleans.  My mother was born in Chicago and adopted by a blue collar Polish Catholic family.  Mom earned her nursing degree right out of high school and my father earned his first PhD by the time he was 22.

Mom & Dad

My parents sent me to kindergarten with the idea that we're all equal.  My best friends were a boy whose parents had been recently divorced, a 1st Generation girl whose parents were from the Philippines, a boy with cerebral palsy, and a girl whose family came from Belize and had the most beautiful cornrows I've ever seen.  My classmates were white and black and brown and yellow.  The only differences I noticed were that some of their home-cooked meals were strangely different than my own rather bland fare at home.

In high school, I worked summer stock and my first show was La Cage aux Folles.  The cast and crew consisted of men and women who were black, white, yellow, brown, young, old, gay, straight, bi, poly, and one trans.  And more importantly, they were all bright, kind, funny and talented and contributing members of society in their "non-theater" lives.

I've worked in offices where the 'Mos outnumbered the straights and offices where the blacks outnumbered the whites.  I've worked with RWM (rich white men) and ghetto fabulous chicks.  I've worked with people in their 40's who just care about making enough beer money and people in their 20's with 3 kids at home.  I've known gay couples who adore their children and straight couples who fight to keep the "true" definition of marriage on the books even after their own divorce.  I've been close to people who had their first kid at age 16 and others who waited until it was too late.  I've known women whose lives were saved due to screening at Planned Parenthood clinics and women who practice safer sex religiously, yet had to take the Morning-After pill because latex can be faulty.   I've worked with women trapped in sexually abusive relationships and men who are trapped in mentally abusive relationships.

I've lived in rich white suburbs where there's a synagogue on every street, middle class mixed suburbs where there's a community church on every corner, big cities with Catholic churches or mosques towering over bungalows, and now I'm in the Bible Belt where a Baptist church sits near every gas station. 

I've been lucky enough to have some great teachers and have known others who simply fight to keep kids learning in a safe environment.  I've had art, music, and theater at every stage of my life.  My parents encouraged me to learn science and history and punished me when they knew I was slacking off. 

My husband and I initially shared nothing but a love of music and comedy.  Our socio-political beliefs differed, our view of scientific fact was discordant, and our life experiences had definitely run two separate courses prior to becoming friends.

MY America is the one filled with people just trying to get by, rolling with the punches, aiming for a better life.  So when I see some Teabagger/Right-wing nonsense, I have to wonder, to WHAT America are they referring to?  The one that would keep my husband and I on opposite sides of the fence or the one in which we can learn from our differences and allow everyone a chance at that old American Dream?