Hello

I just wanted to use this very wonderful forum to proudly congratulate my country for turning 250 year old this year. We still have a ton of problems to solve, lots and lots of work to do, but we always need to remember that after all, we’re just part of this greater flow of time. We’re just petty animal beings that are part of this massive, ever-moving history. When change comes, it’s slow, and it’ll always face backlash. We’ll step ahead, then swing back in time, then slowly but surely, a positive change is going to gain ground. It might seem tedious, if not impossible. It might seem as if we’re doomed, sprinting towards our own destruction. But again, that’s just part of the temporary swing back. It took women nearly 80 years to gain voting rights since the first major female suffrage activists started their journey. At numerous times throughout history, we’ve been stepping back to imperialism and colonialism, ever since the Monroe doctrine. We unethically gained ceded land from Mexico. There was the Panama Canal Zone incident, and even before these flagrant mistakes, we’ve been “invading” Native American land. In more modern contests, there was the Cuba crisis and the Iraq war. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t be just concentrating on these depressing news. Instead, we should open up our eyes to how much progress we made. We’re returning more and more land to the Indigenous people, and rightfully so. The vicious and flabbergastingly open anti-Asian, anti-Chinese hate initiated by the majority, initially observed first during the Gold Rush in California, has since faded away. After the civil war, people of color gained voting rights. It was an extremely slow process. The Reconstruction seemed to improve their lives, then the Southern Democrats were able to negotiate a corrupt comeback with the cowardly Union government, creating Jim Crow laws. We returned Okinawa to Japan, we returned Philippines to its people. Same-sex marriage is now legal. Still, we shouldn’t ignore the systemic problems still deeply rooted in our imperfect society. We are still improving, but many things are unjust. Systemic racism. Taxation that is theft. Voting right restrictions. Thousands of unborn lives killed by unnecessary abortion. Affirmative action. Trans rights, especially in sports. Police brutality. Forgetting of the working class. I’m going to repeat again, we’re still imperfect. But slowly, although surely, we’re making progress. There is no change that is without backlash. The far right, extremist populism that is gaining ground around the globe is an example of this, but don’t be discouraged. Work through the swing backs, and progress is there. If you have any insights, analysis, or just general opinion, feel free to comment down below. And as always, thank you so much for the brilliant administrator of this site for making this possible. By the way, here’s an interview piece from The Guardian that’s very insightful on this matter and inspired me to write this: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/25/rebecca-solnit-slow-revolution-far-right-cannot-tolerate?scrlybrkr=af864a16.
HAPPY 250TH ANNIVERSARY, AMERICA!