Mood:
celebratoryNow Playing: The clickity Clack of the Train Tacks
I, Elisabeth Rachel Westberg, do hereby revoke most publicly my claim to be a US Citizen, resident, and alien. In 1 hour I will no longer be tied to a country I do not believe in.
I have waited for this day since 1990, when my family moved to the United States. I HATED it. For years I have fantasized about cutting up my green card and mailing it to the US Immigration Bureau accompanied by a disagreeable essay, because "gasp" who wouldn't want to live in America?
But today, my Greencard expires. I refuse to renew or apply for citizenship. With the choice of living in either Canada or England, why the hell would I choose to live in the States instead?
The United States is a quagmire of ignorance. Yet, it is hard to blame the majority of Americans for this state of affairs. I believe they have been engineered to be isolated and uneducated, so that they will function more efficiently as consumers.
I am a direct product of the American education system. I lenrt to spel and reed and rite. I lived in Virginia, in a town 1/2 black, 1/2 white. The city lived in segregation. The high school, almost exactly 1/2 black, 1/2 white, learned in segregation. There were 2 cafeterias, and though there were no signs of obvious aggression, it was clear where people belonged. Forget individuality, forget personal rights and freedoms. You learn early how the country prefers to operate.
In grade 4, when I entered into US schools, they had already begun to separate the "gifted" students from the "average" students. TRANSLATE: "white/middle-class+" and "black or white-trash" As a Canadian, I was considered a minority, and held back. For five years, until my parents fought enough times to put me in more challenging classes, I witnessed the silent hand engineering American society. On days where the "gifted" students left class to be challenged, the few of us left behind were not given any new work to do.
In the end, my graduating class certainly did not reflect the 50-50 ratio.
Did you know that over 50% of the US population is non-white? And how is this represented in the media? In advertising? In movies? In books? In newspaper columns? In businessmen on the street? In Congress? On TV shows?
What is clear to me, is that America is engineered by and for a small percentage of white people who have most of the money, because they are the only ones qualified for the jobs, or know someone who will give them a job, and therefore the target audience for businesses is the people with the money: white-middle-class+.
This is just my personal story. Imagine the story of someone who is really involved in the system. Secrets and lies, secrets and lies, and a lot of racism.
It is a sick sick country. The public services are falling apart. Christian fundamentalism spreads more hate than love. Most Americans cannot afford health care, because you must have a good job with benefits to be insured. The beautiful land is being polluted. And the whole world is laughing at how ignorant the Americans are.
But really, it is those who are in power: the lawyers, the politicians, the businessmen, who are ignorant. In order to have this money and power, they have sacrificed not only the integrity of the country, but their own.
I do not care for this kind of country, this mecca of opportunity. I don't care about SUVs, fast food, or big gooey chocolate-chip cookies. I don't need to keep my options open, I don't need lots of choice, because the answer is clear to me: The United States is not for everyone.
So goodbye Resident Alien card: and hello freedom!