my friend asked me a very big, very important question. i think we all need to examine our answers to it, and compare them and reassess and restructure and actively work toward achieving them.
what do you want this country to be?

i'm one of the least politically savvy people i know. there's so much i just don't understand. that said, i recognize that our country could be more than what it is and i have hope that we can all realize its potential by getting off our asses and working with one another in a united spirit of hope, perseverence, understanding and pride.
to start from the bottom, in a sense.... i want for people to recognize how truly blessed they are to be a part of this country. on its worst days, it is a better place to call home than so many others. we are free to do what we choose, be whoever we take it upon ourselves to become. brave and righteous people we wont know in this life sacrificed everything so we could be handed all these opportunities the minute we became Americans. it is no small gift. that so many of us recognize this truth and deny or ignore any personal responsibility to preserve and prosper such a gift to the best of our abilities is disgusting. to whom much is given, much is expected, and our scale is far from balanced. too, in this vein, an awareness of how genuinely good it is to be where we are and to have all we have should culminate in a sense of pride. the pride you might take in having a cool dad or really wrinkly gorgeous baby or something that you had no active control over but appreciate and know how much it's the shit. (read: this does NOT mean someone else's dad is uncool or other babies suck for not being the one you worry about every time it coughs. pride is separate from, and more righteous than looking down on anyone else. peter said love is not proud but i think pride accompanies love and does not preclude gratitude and humility.)

i want ours to be a country that encourages and rewards education. GED-level instruction should be recognized as the right of all americans, and opportunities for higher education ought to be extended equally to every interested party regardless of race, creed, or socio-economic status because the higher the number of educated persons in a society, the greater its capacity for progress and positive evolution becomes.