There is no place like home…for me that is America. I’ve traveled and seen many places but at the end of the day I love to be on American soil. I’ve never felt safer or more grounded anywhere else and I’ve been to a few places in my time.

Years ago, when I was in college or traveling in the military, I remember being on my way to my little hometown…the place where I couldn’t wait to get away from as a teenager. But when I would return for visits, there was this feeling of indescribable joy the closer I got to home. I can only imagine what it must be for the many who must flee their home countries…but that is another story.

In my lifetime, I have seen many changes in America…for the most part we have been becoming a more perfect union. One of the biggest changes is access to everything I genuinely want (and can afford). There is no restaurant I cannot enter, few schools I cannot attend, no job I cannot attain, no person I cannot hold a conversation with, no book I cannot buy today, and I can vote…this is America. Seems simple, but it hasn’t always been this way. 

Now don’t get me wrong, there are restaurants where I feel more welcome than others, schools I don’t want to attend, jobs I prefer someone else do, and people who are a little scary…but until recently we were trying to move forward most of the time.

I love to vote…I still shiver a tiny bit every single time I cast my ballot. I am not afraid to walk in most places. I’ve never been in a city where I didn’t get on the bus subway and just ride.  There is nothing quite like public transportation to get intimate with a city and its people. A taxi is just not the same, although they can be quite insightful if you get a friendly driver.

As a young student, I loved putting on a pair of jeans and a plain sweatshirt and going alone to block parties in the D.C. community and just mingling. Here I was, a military brat from a small town in Georgia who had never even smoked a joint…out partying in the streets of our capital city all by myself. I loved it!

I loved going to every corner of the Smithsonian…seeing people on the street talking about their political beliefs, seeing openly gay people and no one blinking an eye, seeing history all over the place…and all kinds of people together. If you ever get to our capital city, you must visit the Library of Congress and look up!  It’s heavenly…if you believe in heaven and I love that in America we can still believe or not believe.

I still love driving America and stopping at places I haven’t been before.  I stop at every yard sale sign if I’m traveling on the weekend. I love looking at the stuff in peoples’ lives…love talking to them, touching their stuff, especially at estate sales folks tell you all about the family treasures and sometimes the history of things they are selling for two dollars. I’ve never stopped by a yard sale where no one would take my money because I wasn’t white or where I didn’t feel welcome. Oh, how far America has come.

I’m not a fearful person…I’ve never been a fearful person. I feel comfortable in America although I know we are going through an awfully dangerous time politically. Since September 11th, 2001, we hadn’t had a major attack on American soil until January 6th, 2021. It’s always dangerous in a time when we are in danger of becoming like the countries so many are fleeing from. A country of hate and fear…a country with less freedoms than those before us fought for. I love being America…our little democracy striving to be more perfect. It’s not perfect. It may never be. But I kind of like it better when we are trying to be. 

Did I say, I love America? I do. I do. I do.

P.S. Young people and Democrats…TikTok is going to be okay. President Biden is playing chess, and he knows how.