Captain’s Orders

I like to think I’m patriotic, to an extent. But it’s a very specific brand of patriotic. Growing up, my parents didn’t really talk politics, at least not in front of the kids. At least they never did in terms of using the word “politics,” values existed, and it was all mostly taught from example. Which is fine and good, really.

But I read comics. Comics weren’t, in my household, a bad thing. They were as good as any other reading, and reading was great.

So my politics ended up being shaped by Captain America. So yeah I always believed in America, but not “America the place that exists under my feet.” I believed,, and those comics taught me, that I believed in the idea of an America that we’ve never reached but should always strive for.

The promise of freedom for everyone, equality and justice, a land where people can exist and put aside hate, where a future can be built but not a personal future, a collective future that lifts all ships.

Gonna say part of that again for the cheap seats: It’s not a place that has ever existed. This isn’t some “Oh let’s go back to…” thing, because fuck you when was America ever that place? When we had legal slavery (We still fucking do, go look at prison labor laws), when half the population couldn’t vote, when the fuck are you thinking of? Oh, when we founded the country on genocidal tactics? Is that the time?

No. Of course not.

But the idea of the U.S., the ideals laid forth, the concept that we could, one day, reach that place we all want to be, that’s worth believing in for me.

Belief isn’t enough, obviously. You don’t get there on a magic wish.

You get there by working. Together and apart. You get there by bettering yourself, every day, and questioning yourself and being honest with yourself. You get there by learning to be kind, and how to raise others up with you.

You get there by locating your fellow seekers, and working with them. This isn’t some lone warrior bullshit. Work together, find the best idea, the best plan, and back it. Be prepared to adjust, to learn and grow together. Shoulder to the stone, the force of many can lift heavy things.

That group, those groups of groups, discussing, arguing in good faith, finding and forging new paths out of old and improving things inch by stubborn inch – that’s the U.S. I believe in.

The U.S. I believe in has never actually existed. But it is out there, a shining hope in the mist, worth reaching out for and working toward. And I’ll always believe that, and always do what work I can to help get there.

And yes, I found the foundation for my belief in a comic character. Because stories have always had the power to show us truths we need to discover. And that’s one of mine.