Column: An America to imagine

I have a confession to make - I love America. I know: I'm a college student against the war - I should be hating our country right now. But I don't. Studying abroad in Kenya last fall, I got to see the effects of Western imperialism firsthand, but I also got to evaluate the freedoms I have as an American that I wouldn't have in other parts of the world. I may not always like how the political dialogue in America plays out on issues like the economy, gay rights or capital punishment, but unlike in many other countries, here those issues are on the table, here exists the possibility to provoke change. I may not always love America's actions, but I do love the potential of our country.

It is because of this love for America's promise that I hate so much what President George W. Bush is doing now. I believe this war with Iraq will needlessly inflame the Muslim world, needlessly kill innocent Iraqis and American troops and alienate our country from the rest of the world - without curbing terror or making America considerably safer. Some days I turn on the news and feel sick. Sick of hearing politicians and pundits carelessly use words like "freedom," "equality," "democracy," and "God" and in the process rendering them meaningless. Sick of feeling like I can do nothing. In truth, though, there is something those of us dissatisfied with America's behavior can do. We can recreate America.

In a recent interview with the Sun, the philosopher Jacob Needleman talks about how our country's material success rests largely on "the crimes of America - slavery and our decimation of Native Americans. And yet, America was also "once the hope of the world - The deeper hope of America was its vision of what humanity is and can become." Needleman argues "what's good about America is that it has within it the possibility of reinventing itself." It has within it the possibility of confronting its past and recreating itself to be an America that lives up to its infinite potential.

In my last column I wrote of a professor who taught me you can't have a society you can't imagine. Our generation must begin imagining the America we hope to create - because it is ours for the creating. Our generation can't stop this war, but we can start deciding for ourselves what kind of an America we want to live in.

I know. It's cheesy. It's kid's stuff. I agree, it kind of makes you want to throw up. But I also think it's true. At a time like this we ought to start thinking about what kind of society we want to live in because I don't think we consider it enough. It's not easy because to do it right you can't worry about coming across as cheesy, idealistic or naïve. Reading over the list I've made myself, I sound like a Celine Dion song. But I know I really believe in the ideas I'm writing down, and I don't think they're impossible dreams. After all, it's not some supernatural force running the world. It's just us. Here are some abridged examples of my longer list:

I want to live in an America where it's okay to admit mistakes. In his new book, Bill Maher asks why we label politicians who change their minds "indecisive" and not just "human"? Maybe if we lived in a society in which mistakes were permitted, presidents whose poorly conceived diplomacy leads us into war could re-think their positions without fear of being labeled weak.

I want to live in an America that encourages creation - from its artists, politicians and children. I want to live in a fun America, an America where it's okay to laugh, drink, tell jokes and have sex. I want to live in an America in which no words are banned, no idea is censored, in which politics is not a struggle between those who say nothing on the left and those who say nothing on the right, but rather a conversation between people from all walks of life who say what they really feel.

These are only the first, small, ill-defined seeds of the America I want to create. Each of us must imagine our own visions of what we want our country to become, of how we want to reinvent America. Only then can our generation bring to America what our politicians lack - vision, creativity, a sense of hope. Only then can we begin to see just what this America of ours can do.