The Promise of the United States of America? - Prompt 12

 

The Promise of the United States of America?

 

A promise founded upon shifting sands.

Wide, broad and stratified; the various layers changing over time, the bodies of the past becoming the decayed and diseased dreams of the future.

Extended, welcoming hands, espousing peace and serenity; have been drowned in time, covered up by rhetoric, and buried in blood.

Desires of exclusivity war constantly with ideals of inclusiveness - smoke dreams, rarely realized in truth.

But America holds forth a shining dream - that each individual is treasured, honored, and treated equally. Is this the reality? No. Instead, we have had a raging nightmare - segregation, slavery, multi-class stratification, a rush to judgment; and small minds closed firmly against the greater good.

Are you male, white, and well educated? Doors for opportunity seem to open widely, although personal stupidity can close them.

What about if you are female, white, and well educated? The glass ceilings are firmly in place. Power is often gained through employment associations of a more personal type and all too frequently, sexual prowess is accepted as payment. Rare is the woman whose success actually springs from professional competence and peer recognition.

Is your skin darker colored? To what degree? Cream? Coffee with milk? Brewed tea? Deep coffee? What about red or yellow? No matter the color, unless the individual is white, the steps to success are now steeper, the doors are larger and heavier, and the locks are more difficult to master. Is such mastery impossible? No - in America, all is possible. Is such success likely? To repeat, it's not impossible, although it is not frequent.

The fairy tales run deep - that all can make it in America. That the streets are paved with gold and all who pass the borders will have the opportunity to grab the golden ring. Even fairy tales can come true, but they gloss over the difficulties in the pathways of that success.

The carousel that is America revolves around ideals rarely realized. Every freedom granted seems to require two others to be either annulled or ignored.

 

I am an immigrant. I am white, female, and many doors were and still are open to me. My parents had it harder - they came over as adults, I came here as an infant. America is the only home I have in my long memory. I look at my country with a balance of love and loathing - I clearly see the promise of greatness as it bumps against closed minds and bounces off petty officials. When will the promise of freedom in America finally ring clearly and purely?