My “American Dream”
In what kind of country do you want to live?
I dream of an America that respects and supports the interdependence of all beings in nature. An America that respects and supports how each of us follows and practices spirituality. An America that provides equal opportunity and systemic support for all individuals to freely pursue economic security and build generational wealth. An America where independent, critical thinking and emotional regulation are intentionally taught, promoted, and practiced. An America that welcomes visitors who seek to permanently live in America through a practical and sustainable process of earning citizenship. Remember the human species did not originate on this continent, so we all owe our lives to immigrants who came before us.
To put our American existence into context, I did some “research” and calculations. (See detail and reference resources at the end of this writing). The oldest, still existing, mountains and rivers are hundreds of million years old, humans have been on this continent somewhere around 13,000 years. Accordingly, we have been here 1/100th of 1% of the time (0.0001). Compared to ancient mammals who lived in N. America, we’ve been here 1/10th of 1% of the time, (0.001). Compared to when humans began inhabiting N. America, we have been “here” less than 1% of the time, (.01), but let’s use 1% for reference.
Equated to measures of time we all use often: 1% of a year is 3.5625 days, say half of a week. 1 tenth of this is about a third of a day or 8.5 hours, which means 1 one hundredth of this about 51 minutes. But that’s comparing human existence on N. America to that of the oldest mountains and rivers. European-, African-, Asian-, Americans have been here less than 5% of the time that any human beings have existed “here”. Five percent of 3.56 days is 0.18 days or 4 ½ hours. (And I’m rounding up!)
My point being, “we” European-, African-, Asian-, Americans have a lot to learn from our ancestor beings and we should honor history not by reliving it but by absorbing its lessons and doing better with what we didn’t do well before.
In his speech while in Poland, Feb. 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden said it’s time to decide what kind of world we want to build. Looking at the coalition that supports Ukraine, he said: “We need to take the strength and capacity of this coalition and apply it to lifting up—lifting up the lives of people everywhere, improving health, growing prosperity, preserving the planet, building peace and security, treating everyone with dignity and respect. That’s our responsibility. The democracies of the world have to deliver it for our people.”
Yes, that’s the kind of Democracy I support – by, for, and of the people it represents. A culture and society with a chosen and shared governance that focuses on lifting up all lives, supporting peace, security, dignity, respect, and prosperity of not only its human people, but of all elements that comprise the world and planet on which we live and hope to thrive for much more than the next “9 hours” (aka 20,000 years – see above time comparisons). As the youth say today, “it’s been a minute”, and yet that’s all it’s been. There’s so much more to learn and live.
I dream of an America with “a vision of a hopeful future and a realistic means to get there.” (Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, newsletter of 2/24/2023).
What kind of America (and world) do you dream of?
Scientific research supports the following: (Links for my sources of this data are below).
480 M (yes Million) years ago: Appalachian Mountains began to form, they’re still here.
386 M years ago: the oldest known forest (in the world) originated in what we now call New York. Not technically still growing, but scientists are analyzing its connection to current forests.
260-325 M years: ages of the Susquehanna and New Rivers, they’re still flowing.
75 M years: age of the Colorado river, still flowing (but could be in danger).
55-80 M years ago: (Current) Rocky Mountains began to form, still here.
40-50 M years ago: Camelops (more like llamas than camels), and Ancient Horses roamed North America. (While these specific creatures are extinct, their extinction wasn’t until around 11,000 years ago, and there remains a debate about the “nativeness” of our current wild horses)
6 M years ago: The Grand Canyon was carved, still here.
1.2-1.7 M years ago: mammoths travelled to North America. Now extinct.
13,000 (yes thousand) years ago: human beings arrived on what we now call North America and 80% of the Native American people are genetically connected to these humans. (Note, it is now widely believed that these weren’t the first human beings in N. America, but it was the most documented example I could find.)
500-600 (yes hundred) years ago: colonization of America began. (Not necessarily our proudest moment, in retrospect. We should have done this with much more humility and respect and less greed and violence, but we’re still here.)
Ten thousand divided by one million equals 0.01 (a penny, 1%), divided by ten million is 0.001 (1/10th of 1%), and by one hundred million is 0.0001 (1/100th of 1%). Let me try to equate that to measures of time with which we are all more familiar. 1% of a year is 3.5625 days say half of a week. 1 tenth of this is about a third of a day or 8.5 hours (yes hours), which means 1 one hundredth of this about 51 minutes.
https://www.livescience.com/51793-extinct-ice-age-megafauna.html
https://a-z-animals.com/blog/6-oldest-rivers-in-the-united-states/
https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/nature/grca-geology.htm#:~:text=Through%20this%20method%2C%20scientists%20have,of%205%2D6%20million%20years.
