After ten harrowing years of living in this crazy country, I finally decided to act on that old adage "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em". Besides, I've discovered that Americans don't take all that kindly to being beaten (who would, after all), so I layed to rest my weary seal club and instead took up the solemn oath of citizenship, swearing by the Holy Bible to uphold such lofty ideals as the separation of church and state, and making it my goal to install a 10 foot monument of the Ten Commandments in my living room in the spot where my 53" high definition, rear projection portal-to-wickedness currently resides. (OK, so no Holy Bible was involved, but if the Christofascists are allowed to have their way...)
These are strange times to become an American. I arrived in an America with a hip POTUS who played the sax', only to become an American in an America with a POTUS who almost chokes to death on pretzels, can't stay upright on a Segway scooter that's designed to make it impossible to not stay upright, who repeatedly is catapulted over the handlebars of his mountain bike, and who in one term transforms a massive budget surplus into a massive budget deficit. I become an American at a time when more Americans than ever seem to believe that their government can be trusted, despite all the evidence to the contrary. "WMD" does, after all, stand for "W's Massive Deception". Look it up in the dictionary if you don't believe me.
But, I have hope for America. I am particularly proud of those Americans who stood in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, which has now been proven - without a shadow of a doubt - to be wholly based upon lies and has turned out to be a massive boondoggle, funnelling literally hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money into the military industry, facilitating waves of death and terror for men, women, and children of a sovereign foreign nation, and misusing brave American soldiers who signed up to defend the nation - not participate in wasteful imperial escapades based on the deceptions of the well-insulated ruling elite.
Yes, I have hope. I'm a cynical optimist, if you will. The people of this country have successfully rallied to defeat evils in the past, such as slavery and institutionalized racial discrimination (now it's just unregulated -- free market racism, if you will). I have hope that the people will become fed up with wars that waste our money and our citizens on protecting the privelege of the big auto manufacturers to continue producing high profit margin, highly polluting, gas-guzzling, tanks that masquerade as road vehicles. I have hope that American parents will no longer accept their sons and daughters being returned to them shattered and in ruins, some as boxes of remains like waste from some animal slaughter house.
I have hope for a country that comes to its senses and takes its place once again amongst the other great nations of Earth. I have hope for a country that steps up to the plate on the issue of global warming. I have hope for a country that joins the rest of the civilized world and recognizes the right to marriage for couples with non-traditional gender identities. I have hope for a country that re-establishes its commitment to secularism, despite the short-term political expediency of pandering to the agenda of religious groups who act to subvert the supremacy of a secular government. I have hope for a country that works to strengthen the United Nations, not weaken it. I have hope for a country that becomes a pioneer and world leader in renewable energy technologies.
More than anything, I have hope for a country that joins the 21st century (better late than never, right?). And it's because of these hopes that I become an American - proud to consider myself liberal - not prepared to merely fall in line like so many quasi-patriotic neo-fascist drones, and determined to dissent for the sake of our progress. It's an easy time to have doubts about becoming an American citizen, when so many of my friends whose politics I most respect are dreaming up scenarios under which they can flee to the sane refuge of Canada or New Zealand. Of course, right now America needs all the sane voices it can get (so stay, dammit!). I plan to be one of those voices.