How do you feel about life in America?

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

We have a very good life here. I think some things could be a lot better. 

Let’s go back to the beginning. Why are we here? Well, we had a war with England, and we created our own independence here. We were trying to get away from what? Taxation, and right now, as of today, all the taxes and everything, everything is like, my God, we became everything that we fought against. We became taxation nation. I’m one of those people, I think we should really do a rethink. I think that the idea of America was founded on being independent. When I was growing up, you can be anything you want in America. You could grow up to be president. 

My dad, being a war veteran, he fought in three wars: World War Two, Korean and Vietnam. What he instilled in me is what he fought for, because he lost a leg. He got blown off a tank. He had PTSD, he had flashbacks of the war. So what that man went through instilled in me what he fought for, that I want to be a good person, help the neighbor, be a part of your community. 

I think in government I see that, wow, we got a lot of opinions, and I don’t think they really reflect what America and what the majority of people actually think. I think the normal ones – not the MAGA, not the far left, but the ones in the middle that are actually getting up every morning, going to work, raising kids, putting on events, getting celebrations going in towns, giving good spirits to people, trying to help out the indigenous people, the homeless, and trying to do your little part as far as being productive. It’s like, wow, look at our country. Really, we came this far, and we’re in how many wars and disagreements with other countries. Why?

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

As I got older, it’s kind of like, the world’s not Disneyland. I grew up that, you watch Disney, and it’s like every story had a happy ending.  That’s not the real world. The real world is vicious and mean, and it doesn’t care about you. You could break down the side of the road, used to be somebody would stop and help you. Nowadays, ah, you drive by, “I don’t know, that’s a serial killer, good luck.”

Our mentality as a nation is really changing. COVID impacted everything about our nation. It took the community and people interaction away. It made us frightened and fearful. We don’t know who to trust now. Socializing now is tech. I want to talk to my granddaughter, I can text her quicker than trying to, you know, it’s like being right next to somebody and they’re not communicating. OK, so really I think there needs to be some really rethinking all this marvelous technology. I understand the benefits of it, but I think that we’ve actually, as a nation, we’ve really lost ourselves to what we’ve actually stood for.

When do you feel the most American?

I was born American. I’ve been an American all my life. I feel like that when I wake up in the morning. This is my land. This is my country. Do I do my part at speaking up occasionally? You can’t have change with being silent. Words might not sound like a lot, but words are very powerful, especially when you can change somebody’s mindset or attitude. Are we too antisocial? I think so. I think people don’t even know who they live by anymore. Take going to an apartment complex and ask, how many neighbors do you actually know? Really know their name, know what they do, have barbecues with them. If you see one of your neighbors, you go like, ‘Oh, God. Let me get out of here.’

We want to be this great nation. Show me what a great nation looks like. What is a great nation? All right, starting wars with other countries, dictating to other countries what they should do. That sounds kind of controlling, you know, dictating on what people should and shouldn’t do. That sounds awful, controlling. That doesn’t sound like the independent America I grew up with.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I hope that people start waking up. Really, I mean people are going to think their own ideas. Some people are very passionate about their ideas, and you don’t step on those ideas, because then you get backlash, but in some regards, you do have to confront some of those ideas, and in our country, and you really need to look at the bigger picture.

Don’t just sit there laid back and sit on Facebook all day, looking at the Reels, because that’s what they want you to do. 

The movie “Wall-E” is a good example. All the people from the Earth went up into space. They got these little tablets. They don’t do nothing, they sit in a chair all day, they look at a tablet all day, they envision the trips and everything on a tablet, but they’re not doing it. That’s what we’re becoming. Since everybody’s on their little tablet, the people that are not on their little tablets, who are controlling everything else, are getting away with murder. People are like, “That’s great, we go for that, Make America Great Again. Yeah, I agree with that. Oh, look at that little cute axolotl.”

Medical nowadays; oh my God, I used to go to the medical doctor, and you’d actually get a physical when you went to the doctor. They check you out, they make sure they run tests and stuff like that. Nowadays, I go in, I tell the doctor what’s wrong with me, they’re not sure what’s wrong with you, and you pay them for what? 

When a person has to figure out, ‘I can’t afford to go to the doctor, because if I go to the doctor now. I can’t pay my electric, or I can’t buy food,’ that’s a terrible state. We’re supposed to be a great country.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

I don’t know much, because I’m kind of little. But in my opinion, I think our government is really corrupt, and I think it’s just making it worse than it has to be. Veterans aren’t housed, and they’re not even stable housing for them after what they did for our country. I think that Trump is just an annoying little guy that needs to chill out.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

It never has. I’ve always stood on this. My mom never liked Trump and how America is, and I don’t really like Trump either. I think he’s annoying, and I think that the whole like, racist people are kind of annoying, or really annoying. They’re just dumb because we’re the same people, just different skin tones. 

When do you feel the most American?

When I’m out shooting guns or fishing. Shot guns like once, twice. I didn’t… It was fun, I guess. And fishing, I do it like a lot.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

To get better and stop racially profiling people. Especially the LGBTQ community, the people that judge them need to start listening to what the LGBTQ community has to say, instead of being so judgmental and homophobic and transphobic.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

I feel great. I mean, all I do is just, like, skate. I’m happy for America for making it this far.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

As a kid, you know, I felt so much more free because I didn’t have to worry about politics, but now as we approach later years, I feel as if there are some things that could be a little bit more touched up on.

When do you feel the most American?

I feel the most American when I’m sitting at the top of a ramp on my skateboard, you know what I’m saying, and just getting up there and going down and doing tricks. Or like on the Fourth of July, when I’m lighting up fireworks with my family, or barbecuing steaks, you know, I feel pretty American.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I hope that we get rid of ICE, and I hope that they have a little bit more understanding on where people are coming from in the world. Not that I think people shouldn’t come illegal, or legally, or illegally, but I feel as if the world would be better if we were more engaged in how the world is rotating and moving.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

I’m feeling like this is a really important time for us to remember that our country is an idea and a project continually under construction.

This 250th anniversary is an opportunity for us to remember that democracy is a participation sport, and it is also a process and not an outcome. I am always inspired when people are thinking about how they can work or connect in their communities to be an example of the ideals that we talk about wanting to hold collectively.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

I was fortunate as a young person to grow up in public school systems that taught us about a breadth of American history that included the violence committed against Indigenous neighbors and people. I was fortunate to grow up in public high schools that had us reading a breadth of authors and perspectives when I was a teenager. As a young person, I did feel a lot of hope and pride in our country, and also that was tempered with an awareness that we have committed so many harms, and it’s a responsibility of every generation to do what we can to repair and to contribute something positive to the future.

I’m Gen X, so I grew up with a healthy, healthy amount of cynicism related to the world around us, but also with a lot of faith in our individual ability to do things that are meaningful. That always makes me feel optimistic about the future. We can always do something about the future.

When do you feel the most American?

I feel the most American when I think about all of the work that people in our community are doing that is celebrating diversity of cultural experiences, that is lifting up and celebrating women, that is committed to public education and opportunity. 

When I think about being an American, and as a person who traveled a lot in the world in my 20s and 30s, being here as an American, I’m aware of the privileges that we have compared to many different parts of the world. I think we have an opportunity to work together to do things that we haven’t done yet as Americans that are part of the mythology, and the stories that we tell about who we are, but that are aspirational still. I don’t feel discouraged by that, but I do feel a lot of responsibility to them.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I hope for meaningful national climate action, and women leaders, and diversity of perspectives guiding the work that we’re doing at all levels of government. I dream about people being able to easily access everything that they need in their daily lives, including really robust and excellent healthcare that is available and affordable to everyone. 

Those are totally achievable near-term goals, but it requires people remembering that we have the capacity to do that work, and we can actually do that work together, if we hold on to a diversity of concerns, as we walk into the future.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

It’s definitely interesting being an Asian activist, an immigrant Asian activist, being married to a Black activist. Definitely. Sometimes we feel like we have targets on our backs.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

I used to be the biggest fan of the folks that always said to come into the country the right way. I always say, “My parents paid good money to have me naturalized, so that I could be a citizen.”

Now that there’s so much controversy around the Korean adoptions, it actually becomes very, very pointed now, that maybe I’m not as legit as I thought I was. Especially with the federal administration wanting to remove the birthright citizenship, that means that my four children would also be deported with me if it turned out that I’m not actually allowed to be here.

When do you feel the most American?
Probably when I’m eating junk food.

Any junk food in particular that fills that brief?
Anything that comes in a brightly colored pack, the classic package that’s going to go straight to the landfill.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I definitely would love for my kids and their children to feel comfortable and to feel safe, and that’s why Demond and I do the work that we do to try to make it a place where our mixed children can be comfortable and be safe and have equitable access to healthcare and education.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

I think it’s tough. On a broader scale the politics of our country you can’t avoid right now, it makes for Black and brown people, especially, it harkens back to a negative time in our history. There’s a real fear about where we’re headed versus the hope that we had about where we were going. If I were to narrow it down to how I feel about living in this country, if you would have asked me several years ago, I would have probably said the same thing as most people, hopeful. Right now my focus is, I hope we remain free. That’s a big statement to make, but there’s a real fear that we’re going backwards. So I’m feeling not hopeful, but right now I’m feeling purposeful about doing things not only in my own personal life but in my community to make sure that I’m not complicit in us going backwards.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

I grew up in my community where we actually look to leadership and we grew up with this idea, this principle that you can go from the ghetto and end up in the White House or end up in government and you look up to your politicians and things like that. I grew up with this idea, ‘rah rah, go America,’ where we’re the ones that take care of everybody else, and we’re the good guys in the world, and college and real life as an adult has changed that, it made me realize we are not about accountability ourselves, but we’re about holding others accountable.

When do you feel the most American?

I think the most American I feel is when I am in the smaller communities that I’m associated with, where we can speak truth to each other and also have different perspectives and still be kind and loving with each other. I feel that, for example, when I’m at the board of Country Fair, I feel that when I’m at the Saturday Market, I feel that sometimes when I’m at a football game where communities come with the same purpose of enjoying something, but also get to have those conversations in a way that is not as fractured as it is online or in other spaces.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I have a 17-year-old son, and my hope is that he gets to grow up and he gets to make choices in his life, whether it’s to be a father himself or to just share how kind he is with the world, and gets to live a life eventually where racism and prejudices and hate is not as prevalent as it is today. I hope the rest of my life I get to witness a world in which the younger generation says no and changes things.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

I’m really excited that the American empire is self-destructing. It’s a good thing. I think we have a whole lot of work to do to be prepared to create a new system that serves justice for everybody and meets everybody’s needs.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

Oh, I’ve always been kind of out there, mostly feeling like it doesn’t meet the needs of the majority of the people, and it’s a capitalist organization that doesn’t meet our needs.

When do you feel the most American?

When I’m in another country, I stick out like a sore thumb. When Bush was in office and I was traveling around Europe, I had a T-shirt that said, “Please, I’m sorry about our president, I didn’t vote for him.”

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

Well, that’s kind of a short time frame, but I hope that we can continue to build a solidarity economy that supports people’s needs, that makes healthy food, and takes care of the environment.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

You have to understand that I’m a judge advocate for the American Legion, and our people are extremely involved, as you know. We have 3 million members in the United States. 

Organization started back in 1919 with General Pershing. First American Legion Post was in Washington, D.C., and the second was in France, and that was a long time ago. I’m extremely proud of our military, and we’ve gone through a lot here recently. They’ve done an excellent job, and as an American Legion member, one of the things that we’re most interested in is how we can help veterans with the problems that they face after they leave the military.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

I haven’t really been involved with the American Legion. I’ve been so involved in so many other things. I’m a member for 11 years, but really only active for the last three, and in the last three, it’s been my entire life. I mean, I’ve spent most days working on American Legion activity, and a lot of it is recruitment.

When do you feel the most American?

I guess maybe I’ve been American all my life. I was born that way. I know I was raised that way, and I’m very proud of my country, and have always been supportive, and will continue to be.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I don’t know how much time I have left, but I’m more concerned about my kids, and my grandkids, and my great-grandkids. I want America to continue to be a strong country, but mainly concerned about its people. Sometimes I think we miss the point of how each of us should be making a contribution toward that effort.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

I am bothered by America right now. I love my country so much, but it kills me to see the way things have gone. 

We used to be a country that was united, a country that felt like a sense of community, where it felt like there’s so much progression, so much possibility, and hope, and endless capabilities of anyone to do dang near anything. I feel like more and more, everything is just kind of backsliding, whether it’s through racism, bigotry, prejudice, just even trying to feel like there’s a sense of belonging anywhere in this country. 

How did we go from Obama with “hope and change” to Trump talking about how he doesn’t give a s— about anyone or anything?

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

Throughout my lifetime, I feel like I’ve tried to do my best to be optimistic, to believe in the greater good. I’m a person who grew up in Lane County my entire life, and as a Black person here, I stick out like a sore thumb. 

But I always wanted to believe that things were going to be for the better, and more and more it feels like every day it’s that disquieting feeling of my father’s youth, being raised in the South during the Civil Rights, Jim Crow era, where he told me, ‘Man, we’re still n—–, you got to watch your back.’ As much as I tried to scoff that and let my youthful optimism be my driving force on who I was, now I feel like maybe my dad was right, and maybe I was a bit foolish for believing so hard something could be possible.

When do you feel the most American?

The most American I feel is at events like this, whether it’s the Juneteenth event or when we’re out protesting. What was it James Baldwin said? He said something to the effect of, “If you love America, then you’re going to fight for America.” You’re not going to be happy for less. 

I feel most American when I see people who are more different than me than I could have ever believed or even thought possible, but we still have this common belief that this is our home.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I hope for America throughout the rest of my lifetime that, all of this that we’re currently going through, this whole nonsense, all of this madness, one day we’re gonna tell our kids, and they’re like, “No. There’s no way you guys went through that.” That it’s not even possible. I hope that one day this all feels like a bad dream, and we can all look at each other and just say never again, and do better.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

I’m excited about the soccer team, which is why I’m wearing the U.S. get-up right now. Obviously, there’s plenty to feel mixed feelings about, but I don’t know, like I was born here, I grew up here, I want to see America succeed. There’s plenty to complain about, but maybe this is a point of privilege, but I’m trying to focus on the positives to some degree.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

It’s definitely changed. When I was younger, like when — I’m in a sports mindset right now — but when thinking about soccer, when the U.S. team was going on a run in 2010 it was like, “Hell yeah, like this is the U.S., like we’re the best U.S.A.!, U.S.A!”

Now we look forward to soccer to have an escape from the USA things that we actually don’t want to talk about, and sports are now this one island of a place where we can all kind of be excited about America for like a split-second, you know? Because there’s a lot we’re not stoked about.

When do you feel the most American?

It’s during the Olympics, during the sports. That’s kind of my thing.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I’d love to see everyone a little bit more leveled out. We have two parties right now that don’t want to talk to each other, and that’s not very helpful, and I feel like when I was a kid, and I’m not even that old, I felt like people could be in the same room, it just wasn’t a big deal. It feels really divided, and I don’t like that, so maybe America itself needs to divide. 

There’s not really a clean line for that, but it’d be great to be in a place where everyone can disagree in peace. That’s important, because no one’s gonna agree all the time, we’re always gonna disagree. Right now we’re not disagreeing in peace, we’re disagreeing in anger.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

It’s not the optimal state of being right now, but I think we come from a resilient people. I think that we’ve always found a way to slide by in the worst circumstances, so I think it’ll be OK. 

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

Honestly, I would say it’s gotten better. Some people might say it’s gotten worse. I had really good parents. Both my parents have passed, but I felt like they instilled really good values in me, and education was really important to my family. So, I went to “The” Ohio State University, and I’ve been able to have, like, a great career, and that’s taken me all over the place. I lived in Hawaii, I lived in New York, I lived in Texas, Ohio, Virginia. Now I live here in Oregon, and I’m really happy to live in Oregon, because I think my quality of life is better than it would have been if I was in another city, especially in these times.

When do you feel the most American?

When I go back to my dad’s hometown, Enfield, North Carolina, it’s like a colonial city, and I have some of the colonial blood. I have some Native blood, just a little bit, just a smidge, not claiming I’m Native, but I have some of the lineage, right? But most importantly, I’m proud to be Black, and I’m proud that my relatives did a lot of work to preserve our history. I know that history, and I know the struggle that we’ve been through, and I know that through that struggle, even in the worst segregation, my family had something, and they were living like kings.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I hope that America can acknowledge its past, because half of the problem is, there’s half of us that feel unacknowledged. I think what really needs to happen is just for us to be seen, and action to be done to make us seen in a real way and support us in a real way, because I think a lot of people don’t understand the depth in which people are held down, you know? 

When I was in school, some of the brightest people I ever met, they just didn’t have the funds to go to school. They’re way smarter than me. They should be where I am now, and they’re not. It’s just like, some people that I wish were still here, and I wish that maybe that they had some more opportunity. It just makes me sad sometimes, and I think if America looked out for its people a little better, we probably would be a better place.

How do you feel about life in America right now as we approach the 250th anniversary?

I love being American. I think we’re the most privileged civilization ever. We’ve been blessed, God has blessed us, and it’s blessed me.

How have your feelings about life in America changed throughout your lifetime? 

As you get older, you start appreciating more of the freedoms and the liberties that we have, also the privileges like running water, electricity. I love my air conditioning, like my heating crap, and we don’t get that in other countries, Third World countries.

As a Fourth of July baby, how has that shifted for you?

When I was young, I wanted to live to be 100 so I could see the tricentennial. Now I’m like, I better not live to be 100. I wanted to see the 50th.

When do you feel the most American?

When don’t I feel like an American? The federal holidays, of course, Independence Day, but I mean, literally every day I feel like I get to wake up with shelter, food and water.

What do you hope for America for the rest of your lifetime?

I hope America stays as a republic so that we become united and not separated by the labels and all the politics in the country. There’s more kindness than there is evil in this country.