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| Taken from the General Jubal A. Early ferry crossing the Potomac River, Maryland, U.S.A.. |
What do I think about the United States?
And do I like this neighbour to the south?
My activities today were the same as on Canada Day.
No celebrations, no flag waving.
I worked at Detox today,
gardened this afternoon, straightening brick work
and clearing more garden space.
I did both because I enjoy them and
did them both with personal integrity.
Throughout today,
I thought about all of my family in the U.S.
My grandmother was born in California,
she and my granddad lived in Maryland for most of their lives.
My father went to school in Maryland, later working in Baltimore.
Uncles on both sides of the Canadian-U.S. border fought in WWII.
Mom's sister, husband and their family visited in summer from Colorado.
My dad’s brothers with their wives visited from Maryland and Tennessee.
My family in the U.S. is still spread all across that great land
and in many states from east to west, north and south.
My nursing career began and was established in Saskatchewan, Canada where my interest was roused in Addictions Nursing.
Expanding these nursing horizons and to further my education I moved to Texas, the Lone Star State, where I spent eleven years working in a treatment center and a hospital in Lubbock, Texas,
learning my craft at the hospital and at Texas Tech University.
The addicted population that I cared for, Americans all, and a marginalized group in many ways, to my knowledge, have the same rights as any other American.
I feel very much at home in the United States of America
where I lived and worked, enjoying the freedoms to
live
work
develop my life in the manner that I chose.
And in the U.S., as in Canada,
at least one tiny complaint escaped my lips about some part of the mechanics of things,
but I at least had the right to complain if I chose.
Just complaining about something was rather
unproductive there as well.
And then, we all also had the right,
and many times the responsibility to
work for change within our own circles of
community and
employment,
which continues to be true.
It is how any nation is operated
and by whom that makes the difference.
The myriad of political party members working at
the White House since July 4, 1776, of whatever political stripe,
have built the infrastructure of the United States of America.
Lots of tinkering there as well.
As I said in my Canada Day Muse:
I suppose putting politics aside is not necessarily wise.
This is true in the United States as well.
And yes, I do like Canada’s neighbour to the south.
You have given me, and my family, much.
“Our ancestors...possessed a right, which nature has given to all men,
of departing from the country in which chance, not choice has placed them.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
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