Changing Political Views

The following is an article written for and posted on a friend of mine's blog, The Shortest Road. Check it out here or there.

During my college years, my admiration, real recognition, of what the United States represented, was, and stood for, was immature. During the ’08 Presidential Election, calls by liberals claiming they would de-camp to Canada, Europe, or some other liberal bastion if Sarah Palin ever became Vice-President were common. I heard these and—maybe out of a youthful romanticism, or maybe just unchecked excitement and loyalty to Obama’s campaign, for whatever reason—I agreed. However, since then, my stance towards the importance, the gift, of being born in America, and growing up American, has developed, and I will never feel that way again.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m still a liberal voter. You can punch my ballot for Obama in November right now, and for that matter, any other Democrat who can get themselves on the ticket. But, since graduating from college and moving to El Salvador, where I have been working as a Sustainable Agriculture Volunteer with Peace Corps for almost two years, my love, respect, and admiration for America— and not just the NFL, NBA, and July 4^th, but everything else it represents as well—has grown exponentially. Many will think of America’s reputation as affected by its habit of becoming involved in cultural, political, trade, and real wars abroad in all sorts of ways that, quite frankly, do not make the United States many friends. This reputation I regret—from the Iraq War, to tacit support of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, to an unwillingness to agree to the Kyoto Protocol or any other global climate agreement, to its bloodily muddy history supporting right-wing governments in Latin America—but is not what I refer to. The focus put on basic education, women’s rights, environmental awareness, and sexual education, which are such taken-for-granted parts of the American experience they are easily forgotten, is what I am talking about.

In El Salvador, I am currently living in a very rural community of about 350 people. Only one woman in the entire community currently has any form of professional employment. 5 have high school degrees. There are currently 5 girls 15 years old or younger that are pregnant. In 3 of those cases, the father is over 30. In not one of those cases, did the now-pregnant girl stay in school past 4^th grade. The water system is laden with parasites and diseases. I just got back from my Peace Corps-required annual trip to the doctor—I have three different types of parasites myself. But my body has already fully grown and developed and I have free access to medicine and doctors whenever I’d like. Because of water contamination, lack of nutritional food, and a host of other reasons, the local health promoter estimates 45% of children suffer from malnutrition, stunting not just their physical height and weight, but their brain development as well, limiting their potential for life before they’ve even had their 2^nd birthday. Condom use is unheard of, and birth control use by women is thought of by men as something that only leads to women’s infidelity. Family planning is rare. Any factual knowledge of STDs is almost non-existent. There is no trash collection—it is buried or burned in the best of cases, but 95% is just thrown in the creek, ravine, or wherever else seems convenient. This wasn’t an issue 20 years ago when everything was made from locally-sourced, native materials. Then plastics arrived. Now it’s a problem.

I love El Salvador and always will. The people, culture, and the welcoming, sharing personality are impossible to complain about. In fact, I just agreed to an extension of my Peace Corps service; I’ll now be spending 7 more months than I had previously committed to in El Salvador. This country is a special, special place. But, in the United States, drop-out rates of 10% in a high school are considered troubling numbers. Women are graduating college at a higher rate than males, and though their pay still lags behind, their pursuit of complete equality is light-years ahead of where it is in almost the entire world. Climate change may be refuted by some, but environmental awareness and education is nearly universal, and ideas such as raising mileage requirements for cars or taxing plastic bags at grocery stores are no longer considered “extreme, liberty-infringing, liberal ideas.” Sex education, abstinence-based or not, is unavoidable, and all young men and women are relatively well-informed of their results of their decisions, even if inadvisable decisions are still made.

So I love El Salvador, but at the same time, I can’t wait to be home. And not just to see my family and enjoy my first proper Thanksgiving in three years. Nowhere is perfect, but after my time in El Salvador with Peace Corps, I’ve learned the United States is much closer to perfect than I ever could have previously imagined as a more naïve, younger me fretted about the results of an election. There are other highly developed countries that offer an equally comfortable life, but after seeing first-hand how most of the world lives, the small issues I disagree with in the States no longer represent reasons to move abroad. Realizing how small these issues really are just inspires me to continue living in the States, treasuring the luck I’ve had to have been born a citizen, and work to make the changes that years earlier would have just hastened a move to Canada. No matter who wins the Presidential Elections coming up in November—Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama—the USA is a place I’ll always proudly call home.