'This Isn't the Real America': uh, yes it is

i love jimmy carter. it's a simple love from way back when i was a little girl and i dreamed that i had tea with the president.

but i have to disagree with jimmy, a little bit. while our post-9/11 willingness to torture seems new and doesn't fit in with our american mythology, this is precisely the america it has always been. there are two americas. on one side we have the america of progress, liberalism, jazz, commerce, positive thinking, youth, golden American-ness (in contrast to the musty smells wafting over from the old world.) we are vim and vigor, hope and liberty, freedom and possibility.

but we are also lynching, slavery, genocide, colonialism, repression, manifest destiny, civil war, puppet dictatorships, internment camps, reservations, betrayed treaties, stolen land, and rapine viciousness for the sake of a dollar. this is our other face. it's a face most of the historically marginalized populations in this country (on this continent) know quite well.

i love america too, jimmy, but do we need to be quite so naive?