When We Were "Better"

by Amber Rogers

Remember when we were the "We are the world" type of America? The "Hands across America" type of "America?" When we all stood clutching our pearls as we watched in horror little Elián González, whose mother had drowned the year prior, fleeing with her child from both Cuba and Elián's abusive father? We watched in disbelief as our government's, Federal Agents, by order, took little Elián González from his paternal relatives at gunpoint and returned him to his abusive father in Cuba! We all cried a little as this child was ripped from his caregiver's arms as they stood hiding in an upstairs closet, remember? Do you remember the outcries? How we partitioned the courts on his behalf, citing that our ( the United States of America) so-called "wet feet, dry feet policy" should be upheld in the case for his asylum? The very dynamics of this family drama; with the child's "Cuban estranged father" in one country, coming against the "American grandparents" on the other brought out our collective, protection mechanisms; we rooted for the grandparents because they were "Americans" and were repelled by the fact that this "foreigner" had found a loophole within our system to get his hands on this child. We promised little Elián that we would fix our broken system...remember? Well, I want THAT America back! That "America," who bore the brunt of a Chicago winter in support of our first African American President, Barack Obama! We relished in the fact that day, that most of us could see beyond race and that we were a free nation.

Those feelings, loud, cozy and warm, again reverberated through the crowd as we listened intently to the hope of our nation. It spewed out in celebration in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the 50th anniversary of "The March on Washington" and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream speech." Our President, told us with great eloquence and pride that "because "they" marched, America became more free and more fair"... Can we please have THAT America back?

The year was 2001, the date, was September 11th and the time was 8:46 am. and our nation's blood froze. We watched stunned by disbelief as American Airlines Flight 11, crashed into floors 93-99 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. We did not understand what we were seeing, and even as the newsmen and women told us repeatedly what our eyes were showing us, we stood in amazement: holding on to each other, and comforting our neighbors by the sting of the words: "killing everyone on board and hundreds inside the building." When "they" came for us, we were all the same. When "they" attacked us, we were Americans first, and individuals second.

As we watch whats going on in our country today, the shame and disillusionment that many are feeling are paramount. The pure degradation coming out of the White House, with its partisan division, has put our nation at an impasse and it is times such as these when I can not help but be lured back by nostalgia for our "better days!" America, with its history of overt as well as systematic racism, has never "been great," but we have certainly been better. So, how about "better?" Can we please just go back to being "better?"