I love this country. I love that we are bound together by ideals stronger than our reality. All it takes to be an American is to believe in what America claims and sometimes/mostly/almost always aims to be -- a place that epitomizes self-expression, a place where anything is possible, where community is meaningful, tolerance and diversity are the root of our creativity, and compassion is the standard. The idea is a powerful and hopeful one, and that means something, even if the reality for many people makes it a cruel joke. The idea still matters.

I think this love requires not flag waving, but action. As the author James Baldwin once wrote: "I love this country more than any other country in the world, and for that reason I reserve the right to criticize it endlessly." I f we really love it, we need to make it better. We have so much potential to live up to. We have decent affordable housing to build and health to insure and mouths to feed and minds to nurture with decent education. We have democratic values to put into deeper action instead of just loud words. That is the least we can do, and we can do it as soon as we realize that we have to do it to survive. It gets tiring though -- maybe that's why James Baldwin moved to France.