by Elizabeth Cregan
“Let's talk of fear, and why I don't bring it here. It's a dangerous word, it spooks the herd, and we all bleed in the stampede.” - Sara Bareilles, Seriously
To all my peers who feel that it's acceptable to harass and hate, to degrade and dispel those who haven't been granted the same privileges you (and I) have been granted: I mourn for you. I mourn for the America you are refusing to experience: the America full of color, multifaceted and kaleidoscopic and infinitely valuable. This country is a goddamn geode. How dare you treat it like a common rock, flat and white and casually picked up off the ground, instead of dug up over centuries with bloodied hands and weary arms. (We've all tried skipping these types of rocks before: they only travel so far before they sink.) I mourn for the death of vision. I mourn for the fact that you can't see beauty in America's diversity. I mourn for the fact that you feel fear instead of pride.
I am almost sorry, but in the way that i am only sorry for, and not to.
I am so sorry that you can't bring yourself to love the entirety of this country whose flag you wave so belligerently in the face of people who are just as much a part of it as you.
I am sorry that you are only feeling the fragility of your own privilege, that the possibility of its shattering—that the potential of shards digging into your historically-protected side—have sent you into a panic.
I am so sorry you can't bring yourself to look at America from all of its angles, with all of its textures and tongues and colors - because let me tell you, it is a beautiful sight. Let me tell you that this love that you are not letting yourself feel is otherworldly; it is big and unbreakable—as it will remain for the next four years - and man oh MAN are you missing out.
Read the quote at the top of this post. If you want blood, then yes, continue acting the way you are acting. But make no mistake: yours will be in the mix. As well as your children's, and your children's children's. All of ours will be. Continue acting the way you are acting, continue letting fear and a false sense of righteousness dictate your life, and this country won't make it out alive.