Dear Pepper Bough Editor:

We are one country; we are one people. I love the idea of American; I love the fellowship of citizenship.

We have future citizens who don’t yet know that they’ll be our fellow citizens. They’re people living somewhere else who will someday rise at the opening notes of the Star Spangled Banner and stand, hand on heart, next to us as we pay homage to our great nation.

These future citizens are struggling under oppressive regimes or they’re subjected to oppressive social pressures because of religious or personal beliefs that are incongruent with harsh societal standards or they have some other political or social grievances that put them in opposition with their homelands. Maybe the shattered economies in their countries won’t allow them ample opportunities to improve upon their dire circumstances. Whatever the reasons they simply dream of a better life and the only place that they know they will find that better life is in America.

They know about America. They know about the idea of America. They understand the symbolism of immigrants and the children of immigrants and the grandchildren of immigrants. We’ve achieved our greatness standing on the shoulders of their courage, desperation passion and unquenchable desire to be a part of something greater than their imaginations would allow. We are a united people cobbled together from divided parts; we are a social amalgam blended from the greatest collection of castoffs the world has ever seen.

We are America. We were forged in the fires of revolution. Publicly airing our grievances without fear is imbedded in our cultural DNA! Challenging institutional inadequacies is not only a right but it’s a necessary exercise of our civic duty! We value free speech; we value free expression; we value the freedom to choose our beliefs; we value opportunity. We despise oppression; we despise intolerance; we despise bigotry; we despise baseless hatred.

I’m an American but I am not America. You are American but you are not America.

                We are Americans and WE are America!

Wm. Blaine Bowman

February 2, 2017