Steven LaChance Blog

I wish I still believed in the United States of America we were sold when we were kids. You remember the one. The country built on the solid foundation of freedom. The place where all men were said to be created equal, and where anyone could achieve the American dream if they worked hard enough. We pledged allegiance to it every morning, hand over heart, believing those words meant something.

The truth, though, is that the United States of America has never existed for everyone. That was a lie. A lie because if you are a person of color, it was never the same for you. If you are LGBTQ, it was never the same for you. If you are Muslim or Jewish, it was never the same for you either. The promise of equality was always conditional, written for some and withheld from others.

Somewhere along the way, the cracks began to show.

The democracy we were promised, where every vote mattered, has become a stage for the highest bidder. Money rules everything now. Lobbyists write the laws. Gerrymandering draws lines through people’s power. They call it democracy, but it feels more like a game we were never meant to win.

We were told anyone could rise if they worked hard enough. Yet the deck was stacked long before we sat down to play. The rich got richer, wages froze, and the dream turned into debt through college loans, medical bills, and housing costs that crush the spirit. The American Dream became a fairy tale whispered to keep us quiet while the powerful fed at the table.

Justice was supposed to be blind. But it sees color, class, and influence all too clearly. If you are poor, you pay. If you are rich, you walk away. Entire systems were built to keep certain people down and others above the law. We were taught equality. We inherited inequality.

We were told America was founded on freedom of religion, a place where every belief could coexist without fear. But freedom of religion has been traded for the cult of white, straight Christian nationalism. What began as a promise of diversity has hardened into a demand for conformity. Faith has been weaponized into politics, morality into control, and God turned into a campaign slogan. The same hands that preach freedom now write laws that erase it.

Healthcare was called a right once. Now it is a product, sold to the highest bidder. People die in the streets of the richest country in the world because they cannot afford to live.

Education was supposed to be the great equalizer. Instead, it became a gatekeeper. The price of knowledge chained to interest rates and student loans that never end. What good is freedom if you must mortgage your future just to learn?

We were promised truth through a free press, but the truth has been traded for clicks and corporate loyalty. Facts are for sale, and the noise is deafening.

We were told hard work would bring dignity. But the workers who hold this country together, the nurses, teachers, truck drivers, and grocery clerks, are treated like they are disposable. Their labor is essential, their lives apparently not.

We were taught to care for one another, but we turned community into competition. Homelessness rises while houses sit empty. Empathy is branded weakness. Compassion, a luxury.

And while the planet burns, we keep drilling, selling, and denying. The future was supposed to belong to our children. Now it feels like something we have stolen from them.

We were told our soldiers fought for freedom, but too many died for profit. The wars never end, but the support for those who fought them always seems to.

I wish I still believed in the America we were sold. The one that felt possible when we were children reciting words we did not yet understand. Maybe that America never truly existed. Maybe it was always a promise written in ink that was meant to fade.

But I still believe in the people, the ones who march, who vote, who fight for what is right even when the system tells them not to bother. Maybe the real America is not the one we were sold at all. Maybe it is the one still trying to be born.