An Independent Voice - An Independent Choice
People ask me how I made my way to the politics of Progressives. It was both a process and an epiphany.
I thought I was a citizen of the U.S. and, as such, I believed that what was true for me was true for everyone. I believed that what was true for me as a citizen of the United States was true for not only every other citizen of this great country but the world as well. If you worked you succeeded, if you didn't you didn't. You could pull yourself up by your boot straps and prosper. It was true for me so it would be true for everyone.
Then something happened...
It may have been when I held my granddaughter from Ethiopia for the first time, I'm not sure but something happened.
I realized I wasn't just a citizen of the U.S. I was a citizen of the world. I had a connection to something, someone, and some place beyond my personal borders. Not everyone was like me. Not everyone could pull themselves up by their boot straps because NOT EVERYONE HAD BOOTS. If that was true in the larger world could it also be true within the borders of my country, my state, my city? It could be and I discovered it was.
That changed everything.
I realized that people all over the planet are just trying to get along, trying to feed their families, grow their crops, bake their bread and celebrate their lives. These people are not their governments.
I would really like to stop bombing the shit out of them. I would really like to believe that not one more father will have to run through the streets of his town holding the blood soaked corpse of his infant daughter and wondering why America hates him.
That changed everything.