America.

What do I believe? What do you believe? What is this world all about? Allow me to share my beliefs with you, for these times we live in have caused many to doubt one another. Perhaps that ends beginning with what I have to say here. Much has been taken from The People’s Party and modified to better suit my personal vision. Either way, my hope is that you are able to read and understand my message. Let’s do this together.

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I believe in an America where we, the people, decide to take control of our government—and by extension, our economy—in a way where prosperity flows upward, rejecting the notion where power flows down to us citizens from City Hall at the behest of an outdated oligarchic system. America needs to become a place where consumer rights are prioritized over the ambitions of major corporations and financial institutions.

I believe in an America where its political leadership serves the public’s needs—not the other way around—and reflects our collective values of compassion, selflessness, and shared prosperity, not those of the privileged few among us with deep pockets. America needs to be a place where we, the people, decide our leaders and the effects of our political systems, where we, the people, decide what changes and what doesn’t.

I believe in an America where every human being is entitled to the following inalienable rights:

• The right to life, liberty, safety, and privacy;
• The right to a clean, safe, and healthy environment;
• The right to seek refuge from foreign oppression and danger;
• The right to citizenship and equal protection under the law;
• The right to fair, swift, and representative justice under the law;
• The right to freely and peacefully assemble;
• The right to freely practice religious faith (or none at all);
• The right to free public health care services;
• The right to a free public education;
• The right to own property and pursue enterprise;
• The right to freely and peacefully travel;
• The right to freedom of petition, expression and thought;
• The right to participate in free, fair, direct, and open elections;
• The right to work under equitable and satisfactory conditions;
• The right to collectively bargain and be free from exploitative labor; and
• The right to social insurance, pension services, and a dignified wage.

I believe in an America where these are inalienable rights, that all living human beings deserve them, and that these rights and freedoms must apply to everyone, without regard to race, color, age, gender, sexual orientation, income, genetic information, disability status, national origin, religious belief (or lack thereof), and social or citizenship status.

I believe in an America where all men, women, and nonconforming people are equal under the law, and that our laws and systems—criminal, civil, economic, or otherwise—must reflect this, without exception. I believe in an America that opposes all forms of racism, discrimination, colonization, and economic suppression. I believe in an America with a strong and accountable government, buoyed and held accountable by an equally strong and engaged citizenry.

I believe in an America that treasures its natural resources, an America that understands the delicate balance that sustains our environment, and will stop at nothing to preserve this wonderful land that it calls its own. I believe in an America that, in treasuring its natural resources, understands that the only way to preserve a sustainable future for generations to come is through sustainable growth and energy production, through the use of renewable energy resources like the sun, the earth, and the unpolluted oceans, the latter of which holds the source of all life on Earth—water.

I believe in an America that understands that no citizen—male, female, or gender nonconforming—should ever be denied access to quality public health care, regardless of income or class, and that health care is a universal human right that must never be abridged by anyone. I believe in an America that strongly supports and administers a comprehensive public health care system, as well as a wide-open marketplace for private health insurance plans. I believe in an America where health care is a social responsibility that all citizens and taxpaying residents have a hand in upholding for one another, through the hard work and entrepreneurialism that makes us great.

I believe in an America that strives for a vibrant education system that educates students to the point of knowledge and enlightenment, not to the demands of a generic standardized test. I believe in an American educational system that maximizes the learning and earning potential of every student, and rejects the idea that certain students can afford to be left behind while others succeed; a system that prepares American children and young adults for a rapidly changing global economy, and one that values the importance of multilingualism. Most of all, I believe in an America that affirms the doctrine that an education, like health care, is a basic human right, from birth through university or trade school.

I believe in an America that fields a culturally diverse, well-trained, transparent, and accountable police force in its communities, one that contributes to the peace and safety of all people, citizen or alien, in a way that builds up the community, not destroys it; an America with local police officers that respect, protect, and defend the rights of citizens and aliens; an America with police officers that treat the use of force—excessive or otherwise—as a last resort after all options are exhausted, not as an easy option; and most of all, an America that fields police officers that reflect the communities they are sworn to protect, serve, respect, and cooperate with.

I believe in an American economic environment that affords equal opportunities to all citizens, no matter where their ancestors come from or what demographic they happen to be; an American economy that is built to withstand the winds of economic change; an American economy that leads the world in innovation, entrepreneurialism, and enterprise; an American economy that is disciplined, yet compassionate, one that does not exploit the worker in terms of wages and labor for the sake of a bottom line or a few extra figures on a CEO’s salary; and an American economy that encourages entrepreneurialism, but continues to operate under a common principle of fairness.

I believe in an America that fights to ensure justice for all, not just a privileged few; an America that is not afraid to declare to the world that yes, Black Lives Matter, and establish an economic, judicial, and social environment that properly reflects this claim; an America that acknowledges the disastrous effects of colonial imperialism on subjugated native peoples and works to exact the same justice afforded to its own residing within its borders; and an America that is not afraid to declare war on poverty, not a war on the impoverished, for societies are judged by how they treat the least of their own, not the wealthiest, most privileged, or most successful.

I believe in an America that stands opposed enough to the epidemic of mass incarceration to be willing to reform its prison system into one that emphasizes rehabilitation over punitive treatment; an America that believes that its children—and the children of the world as a whole—are the heartbeat of its future, and rejects any measures that may cast their futures in doubt.

Lastly, I believe in an America with leaders duty-bound to answer and be accountable to its people and its people alone; an America that raises up and elects only candidates deemed most fit to represent its citizens’ interests as a whole, and not the interests of large corporations or a privileged few; an America that believes in a bright future for itself, and therefore strives to ensure that its citizens are safe, healthy, secure, educated, and engaged in its political process. Above all, I believe in an America that understands that the loudest voice heard must be one—coming from we, the people.

What do YOU believe?

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