The New Road

A Changed America

With money flowing to the Democrats by 3 to 1 over the Republicans, with Republicans bailing out of the Congress in droves, with an overwhelming majority of Americans opposing the Iraq war, the time for change is clearly here. It's no longer just about anti-Bush, it's about the cleaning up the nightmare created by the lunatic fringe hate radio driven right.

The change is not to new ideas, it's to what we already were:

• An America that doesn't torture it's prisoners. Since the Revolutionary war we have had a proud tradition of never torturing. Why did we start?
• An America where we can talk rationally about the cost of war without questioning each others patriotism.
• An America where we welcome immigrants into the melting pot that has given this country it's strength. Where we don't hide bigotry behind terms national security and advocate building fences on our Mexican border while keeping our Canadian border completely undefended.
• An America where we can respect each others political and religious views even when we differ. And where we defend each others right to say things we abhor.
• An America where we gauge patriotism by a persons involvement and not by their subservience.
• An America where we defend our civil rights even though we personal may never need them.
• An America where we believe in the common good and the strength of community as opposed to only looking out for our own best interests.

That's the America I grew up in. That's the America I love. It was never truly there, sure. It's always been an ideal. But let's at least agree that we should strive to uphold the best in America and not wallow in what's worst about it.