I’m continually disappointed that America doesn’t live up to what I learned about in civics class 30 years ago.

I have clear memories of sitting in class as a kid, asking the most basic questions about checks and balances, separation of powers, equality under the law etc. and being absolutely mesmerized by the topics. I remember thinking, “wow, I live there? I’m so lucky.”

When my teacher said “not even the president is above the law” I remember some other kid really trying to grasp the idea that every single person is supposed to be treated equally by the justice system, regardless of their family, job, or religion. It wasn’t a concept that came naturally to everyone.

It wasn’t until high school and college that I finally understood that these were just ideals that we talk about but don’t fully actualize. America is not the unicorn we think it is, but we’re great at lying to ourselves from a very young age. Howard Zinn was a big part of my waking up to reality.

That’s not to say we don’t strive for improvement, but when one of the two political parties is hell-bent on dismantling the administrative state, taking away bodily autonomy for more than half the population, reverting our ‘culture’ and laws to the 1800s, destroying our planet, discarding science, fetishizing killing-machines in daily life and warfare across the globe, and so much more regressive bullshit, we’re not really setting ourselves up to realize those ideals.

I don’t think you can have a single image of America. What applies in one place doesn’t apply somewhere else.

The Oregon Tourism department put together a wonderful campaign showing how different we are, you couldn’t run this even across the border in Washington or Northern California:

youtu.be/doVV1a7XgyQ

youtu.be/KIC-XmyEfhI

youtu.be/qi4fGPPPmGA

Call me cynical but I’ll be shocked if this isn’t either quietly repealed or overturned in the courts before it does any good. The even more cynical side of me says that is the intent and its only purpose is to pacify people by making them think something is being done when they know it won’t actually go into effect.

Skimmed the title…

New US Climate… Probably terminal… Handful of plants will likely survive

Oh no!

only Trump and lawsuits could save them

What?