Ten years of this has been enough. Ten years of the hate is enough. Ten years of the division is enough. Ten years of seeing the worst of humanity brought to the surface is enough.
I’ve told this story before, but I’m going to tell it again.
Within the first half hour of Donald Trump’s first election victory in 2016, I was called a faggot by someone I thought was a friend. Within days, I found myself being forced to sit in the street by St. Louis police officers as they roughed up a Black man in front of us. We were peacefully protesting. That happened. I witnessed it. And in the ten years since, I’ve watched things go from bad to worse in the country where I was born, raised, and raised my own children.
Aren’t you tired of politicians telling you whom you’re supposed to hate instead of helping you feed your family? Aren’t you tired of the ridiculous culture wars they throw at you so you won’t think about why you can barely afford to go to the doctor? And heaven forbid someone in your family develops something serious like cancer. Aren’t you tired of the hate, the bluster, the manufactured outrage, and the endless distractions when what we desperately need is help and compassion? Not just for one kind of family, but for all families.
I know I am.
People seem to have this idea that because Rick and I live in Mexico, we don’t pay American taxes and we don’t vote. The truth is that we do both. We pay taxes, and we still vote. And quite frankly, both give me not only the right but the obligation to speak out about what is happening to the country I still love.
And what I see is a country being hollowed out by people who have discovered that keeping Americans angry at one another is far more profitable than actually solving their problems. While ordinary families struggle to make ends meet, wealthy political insiders and billionaires continue to accumulate extraordinary fortunes. The people at the top keep getting richer while millions of Americans wonder whether they’ll ever be able to afford a home, retire comfortably, or leave something meaningful behind for their children.
We are not protecting the American Dream for the next generation. We are allowing that dream to become something increasingly reserved for the Elon Musks of the world.
Think about that for a moment.
Donald Trump has seen his personal fortune grow by billions while in office. Meanwhile, families across America are still struggling with the costs of groceries, housing, healthcare, and everyday life. Whatever your political affiliation, shouldn’t that raise some serious questions about whose interests are being served?
Doesn’t that piss you off?
Because it should at least make you ask why the wealthiest people in the country seem to have so many opportunities to become wealthier while ordinary working families are constantly being told to sacrifice more, work harder, and blame somebody else for their problems.
And that somebody else is always conveniently another American. An immigrant. A gay person. A transgender child. A Black family. Someone who worships differently or loves differently or simply wants to live differently.
All while the bills keep coming.
I am tired of the past ten years. I’m tired of watching neighbors become enemies, friendships destroyed, families divided, and basic human decency treated as though it were some kind of political weakness. I’m tired of cruelty being mistaken for strength and compassion being dismissed as something foolish.
I want better for my family, and I also want better for yours. I want your children to have opportunities. I want your parents to be able to see a doctor. I want you to be able to buy groceries without worrying about what bill won’t get paid. I want people to be able to disagree about politics without forgetting that we are all human beings.
That shouldn’t be a radical idea. It should be the very foundation of what we expect from our country.
Ten years is enough.
We need to start asking whom all this anger is actually benefiting, because I can promise you it isn’t the family sitting around the kitchen table wondering how they’re going to pay next month’s bills.
We deserve better. Our children deserve better. And so do the generations who will inherit whatever we leave behind.
Wake up to what is happening before it’s too late.
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