We ponder about where that America is, the one we were told about when we were young. Many have found that America. Unfortunately, a lot more haven’t. For many, America is the place of opportunity. But it is too often the place only the rich can afford. A place where its people want to work together to build each other up, but it is often the rich and powerful who actively work to keep us broken and difficult to put back together. Or to the apathetic, awaiting their reality, it’s only the name of a Simon and Garfunkel or a Switchfoot song.

We stand in the reality of a public health crisis, where many of our loved ones die from opiate overdoses. We’re looking for a place that treats our sick with the respect they deserve, not throwing them in a prison to die because of a non-violent drug charge. We see our climate slowly being turned out of balance by men who literally want to watch the world burn. And, where are we? We’re pacing on. We’re trying to provide in an evermore grueling world. We’re trying to come to the land of opportunity, which continues to be fogged from view, by a demagogue of a President. We’re looking for that shining torch of liberty. We’re looking for America.

We used to be able to gather without the threat of being mowed down by the extreme right. Whose views are so toxic, any opposition to their abhorrent agenda constitutes our death sentence. We used to rise over injustice when a fellow man was kicked to the ground; we used to pick him up and fight for him. But any criticism of a group invested in kicking down a group of people, only wishing to be recognized as a state. It makes us supposedly anti-Semitic, for the mere mentioning of the bully. Not the group who did nothing wrong. We’re looking for a place where we can rise against lobbyists who work to kick people down. We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for a place that told our parents: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But the cost of freedom is to breathe toxic air or lead infested waters. The cost of breathing free is to stare down the barrel of a handgun if you’re black, solely because of the color of your skin. We’re looking for that place which guaranteed us equal protection under the law, not protection if you can afford it. We’re looking for the place that enforced the Clean Air and Clean Water Act. We’re looking for the place that said if we worked to better ourselves, we’d get the Dream greater than anything. We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for a place where if you get sick, you can get a doctor to see and treat you, and not come out with bankruptcy. We’re looking for a place where if you can get an education you can begin your career attaining your dream job and not have to attain that job based on nepotism. Where if you fall on hard times, there is an option by the people you pay taxes to. To ensure you can pick back up where you left off to earn for your family. We’re looking for that place that doesn’t look blindly to crooks who say we can’t do it. We’re looking for those revolutionaries who said: “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.” We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for a dream to where we look at the reasons for the death of our dead overseas and learn from that; that fighting for regime change is wrong. We’re looking for the people who know that sending our family members to die on soil which is not ours should be discouraged and not the course of action. We’re looking for the place where we not only care for our Veterans in speeches. But we care for our veterans by action. We’re looking for the place where we know, not to honor traitors or racists which praised slavery and segregation. We’re looking for the heroes who fought that, not only on the battlefield but in Selma, in Chicago, in Alabama and anywhere in this nation. We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for a place that doesn’t reject science because of a group of billionaires hellbent on earning an extra dollar. We’re looking for a place that not only has concern for the unborn but has concern for the people living in real time. A place where we’re helping disenfranchised children who were born without a dollar to their name. We’re looking for that place that remembers about the people that aren’t seen on TV. The ones who lost their jobs when they were shipped off for cheaper labor. We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for a place, while we count the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, where there isn’t a dangerous pothole ready to take a person’s life. We’re looking for a place that is not slowly falling apart because of hubris. We’re looking for a place where we invest in roads, not bombs. We’re looking for a place where we get rid of crime with education and not incarceration. Where we can let our children enjoy being kids and not be afraid to step out of their house. We’re looking for America.

I’m looking for a place which recognizes that “a nation rises above the fear and fight that haunts these streets.” You’re looking for that place that is ready to see change, and not be indoctrinated by the elites which work against them. We’re looking for that red, white, and blue flag which tells us we’re in America. Where is that place, we can only conjure up in our minds? Where is America? We’ve all come to look for America.