I love my job, and I love what I do. Immensely. Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that when I “go to work”, it’s my refuge. It’s the thing that takes me away from whatever struggles my be happening in my life. And it makes me happy.
To that end, I’ve refrained from talking about politics while at work these past 4 years. I’ve desperately needed work to help me escape from the daily horrors we experienced under the trump presidency. However, that all changed one year ago while I was in Australia.
I don’t remember the exact date, or the particular circumstances that led to the extended conversation with many of my new Australian friends. But so it came to pass that I found myself being asked what I thought about our (then) current administration, and how it had come to be. How could Americans have elected such a demonstrably horrible human being to hold the highest office in our land?
At that moment, I was the direct link to what many of them viewed as a great country that had fallen badly on the world stage. I was the one who could maybe make sense of what had become tragically nonsensical. And I tried, as best as I could, to be the American ambassador that President was never going to be.
Looking back on the experience, it felt very much like what one might refer to as ‘An Apology Tour’, of sorts. I don’t mean that in any way that some might infer as a denigration of or diminishment of my country. On the contrary, I’ve always felt the need to stand up for the good of my country and to attempt to be an example of that good to those I’ve met in my travels. This time was different.
The world had watched as our President denigrate both foreigners and citizens, openly line his pockets at the expense of the taxpayers and, for all practical purposes, extend a middle finger to nearly every other country in the world except for Russia. They hadn’t seen Americans like me trying to speak on the injustices of my country’s administration.
They’d seen Fox News perform as state television. They’d seen rallies of white supremacist glued to every word of their white supremacist leader from the Oval Office. They’d seen children ripped from the arms of parents. They’d seen countless numbers of Black women and men killed with impunity by police, who were then celebrated and supported by the President and his party.
They’d seen, via TV and print media, America become everything that it was supposed to NOT represent.
So as I met this moment with my Aussie friends, I apologized for my country. I apologized for what we had allowed it to become. I apologized and showed my grief for the horrific instances of racial injustices that had seemingly become a commonplace aspect of American life. I apologized for America’s retreat from the world stage as a beacon of hope to the world.
Along with my apologies also came a resolute sense that the America they were seeing was not MY America. That it was not how me, my friends, and the majority of Americans felt. Yes, we were in a tough place, but change was on the horizon. Try as hard as trump and his enablers may, the diversification of the American Dream was inevitable.
I wanted all of them to understand that the America the world has come to know, and the America in which I believe, would be back… and we would be better.
And here we are!
I’m not a very religious person but I say this with all my heart: may God bless President & Dr. Biden, and God Bless Vice President Harris and Second Gentleman Emhoff.
May your success mean the success for all Americans.