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In Memory of America, On This Memorial Day

I mourn for the death of the America I remember growing up

By Jason ProvencioPublished 2 years ago 7 min read
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This wonderful symbol of welcoming others is fading. Photo by tom coe on Unsplash

On Memorial Day 2022, I’m not mourning those I’ve lost within my family, friends who have passed over the years, or even the veterans who have served. I’ve done that for many years already. This year, I’m mourning the loss of the country I once knew and loved.

I’m mourning the loss of civility toward one another. It’s horrible how we’ve allowed politics to divide us and make us hate our fellow countrymen and women. People act like they’d kill a member of an opposing political party if they thought they could get away with it.

Because everyone hides and types behind a screen these days, they feel emboldened to say any horrible, nasty thoughts they have. I get called a “Liberal” constantly like that’s the biggest insult in the world. Bring it. I’m a proud liberal. I care about others. Tough shit if you don’t approve.

Instead of listening and considering another person’s caring point of view, they just regurgitate what they believe, what they’ve heard on the news, and what they’ve read on their preferred websites. They’re taught to be cynical, skeptical, and to live in fear. It’s exhausting to read their negative comments on social media constantly.

We have mass shootings in our country just about weekly. Some weeks, we have them daily. We’re losing innocent children and people to gun violence and arguing about gun reform instead of truly mourning the lives of those who were lost for no valid reason.

We need to stop worshipping guns and ammo. Photo by Jay Rembert on Unsplash

So many people offer up useless thoughts and prayers every few days or few weeks, and then we forget about the people who died until the next mass shooting. They blame the mass shootings on people moving away from God and attending church rather than looking at actual rational, logical information as to why these shootings are becoming commonplace in our country.

We refuse to take steps toward sensible gun control laws, more thorough and detailed background checks, and psychological testing for gun ownership. We ignore the issue of not being able to find easier, affordable, more accessible mental health care.

My heart aches for those 19 children and two teachers who were killed in Uvalde, Texas. The people who were simply just doing their grocery shopping in Buffalo, NY. The 60 deaths in Las Vegas a few years ago. 49 at the Orlando club shooting. 32 at the Virginia Tech shooting. So many others for absolutely no valid reason.

Our country would rather argue with each other and be hateful toward their fellow Americans than try to work together to fix the causes of these mass shootings. People are far too ignorant and prideful to try to come together for the betterment of our nation.

The views many have toward those citizens who are different than they are can be sickening. Racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia abound in America still. Anyone who denies this is likely guilty of one or more of these abhorrent things.

Indeed it is. One that we must eradicate. Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

We seem to have traveled backward in time. All the progress we had made toward acceptance and love has seemed to dissipate over the past 5–6 years. The rise of Donald Trump and his disgusting single-term presidency was an embarrassment to all Americans.

We have become the joke of the world. Conversing with many foreign social media friends over the years has clued me in on how Americans are viewed on the world stage. And it isn’t favorable.

Non-Americans don’t understand our fascination with guns. They don’t understand why so many people in our country worship them and seem so fearful to live without them. And why we turn them against our own citizens.

For people whose country was built on the promise of love, acceptance, and welcoming foreigners who choose to immigrate to our once-great nation, we sure seem paranoid and scared. Many fear our government, people who are different than they are, or their own shadows.

My foreign friends mourn the deaths that our own citizens cause weekly and sometimes daily with gun violence and mass shootings. They mourn while not being able to understand. We have more domestic terrorism against our own people than any civilized first-world country that supposedly holds “freedom” as a core value.

We need to care about our country’s reputation within the world. Photo by Andrew Stutesman on Unsplash

We also do not invest in education nearly to the level most other leading countries do. This is causing America to produce a lackluster workforce and many citizens are unable to earn a livable wage.

They often have to work two or three jobs or stay in abusive relationships for financial reasons. So many people are living with family, friends, or even strangers just to pay rent and avoid becoming homeless. That is one of the biggest fears of many Americans in 2022.

The housing situation and increase in homelessness are other depressing aspects of living in the United States. Pricing has gone through the roof in so many housing markets, while rents have been increased to unaffordable levels as well. Our homeless rates are on the rise while affordable housing in many areas is almost non-existent.

The way women are being treated in 2022 is also an embarrassment. Men in power think that they have the right to make choices about a woman’s reproductive rights. They yell and scream about what their religion thinks about women being able to choose for themselves in terms of reproductive rights.

They are making it difficult and illegal for women to be able to choose to get an abortion if needed. Yet they will refuse to help women financially, or hold the men who contribute to these unwanted pregnancies accountable for their actions once these children are born.

Women are smart enough to make their own health choices. Photo by Aiden Frazier on Unsplash

Ultimately, it’s not about caring for babies or children. It’s about controlling women. This is obvious by the actions we’re NOT seeing to protect innocent school children from mass shootings.

They are also not protecting the children in foster care and promoting easier, but well-vetted affordable adoption options. With close to 1 million children in foster care, something better needs to be done.

How about the addicts in our society? What about the people who struggle with mental illness, to the point of being homeless? We’d rather lock them up and contribute to the prison for profit scheme rather than actually care for and help our fellow Americans.

It’s shameful how we treat our mentally ill homeless veterans, as well as other mentally ill US citizens. If it’s not going to make someone rich and help them profit, where’s the motivation to care for our US citizens?

It boils down to one main contributing factor: GREED. The politicians, CEOs, and corporations want to keep getting rich and don’t give a damn if the poor are getting poorer. Or if they even survive.

Look into our country’s policies on affordable health care if you don’t believe me. Yet another glaring statistic Americans fall desperately short on versus other first-world countries on our planet. Health insurance and medications are astronomically priced.

Many people cannot afford the insulin they need to survive, as diabetics. People aren’t getting yearly checkups because they can’t afford the doctor visits. Some neglect their dental health for the same reasons. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Insulin and other medications need to be affordable. Photo by David Moruzzi on Unsplash

Covid 19 has taken over one million lives in the United States in a little over two years. Most people who have died have had strict anti-vaccination beliefs and are now no longer with us. Fathers, mothers, children, grandparents, and friends didn’t have to die due to the ignorance surrounding vaccines.

When people refuse to trust doctors and scientists, those same people are due to suffer. Covid doesn’t care if you don’t believe in it. It believes in you. Your thoughts and prayers didn’t work on over million people who have died unnecessarily.

Until we educate ourselves and push for others to do the same, we’re going to be in a tough situation, as Americans. Through education, we make better choices. We work better jobs and careers after we’re educated. We demand and receive better compensation to better care for our families and ourselves.

Education also helps combat ignorance, racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. We don’t have to live in fear of those different from ourselves and take up arms to destroy other US citizens. We’re better able to work together to make this country great again. United we stand, divided, we fall.

So on Memorial Day 2022, I’m going to mourn for the America I once knew but seems to have died. The better America whose problems and issues once seemed beatable by working together. The current state of our nation is truly sad and I hope many of you want it to be fixed as badly as I do.

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About the Creator

Jason Provencio

78x Top Writer on Medium. I love blogging about family, politics, relationships, humor, and writing. Read my blog here! &:^)

https://medium.com/@Jason-P/membership

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