2015年7月5日日曜日

Independence Day!!

Growing up in Pennsylvania meant the 4th of July was a big deal.....parades, fireworks, and everyone decked out in Red, White, and Blue proclaiming how great America is...it was all very exciting.
However, now that I have gotten out and experienced life in another country and now live in Hawaii, I don't find myself getting nearly as excited to celebrate America's birthday. In fact, I am much more excited for our neighborhood's annual Bon Dance and Summer Festival put on by the local Honganji and Japanese cultural groups. 
But actually, on a day called "Independence Day", donning a yukata or jinbei and enjoying a Japanese summer tradition is more appropriate than I thought. 
Because when I think about it, my interest in Japanese was what ultimately brought about my independence. Being one of a small (but close knit!) group of people in my age group who was interested in anime and Japanese was very hard at times, I had to deal with constant bulllying at home, but sticking with it was the best decision I ever made. Now I live in Hawaii, work at a Japanese company, raising a beautiful bilingual child, and I can truly be free to be myself and pursue what I want to do. This is what freedom means to me. 
What makes me feel sad is there are so many Americans who will be waving flags and wearing stars and stripes chanting "USA" thinking that we are the greatest country in the world when we clearly have major problems that will not change unless they change. Japan has its problems as well, but when I was there I learned the importance of eating and appreciating real food with local ingredients, how easy life with an efficient public transportation system can be, and how nice it is to pay a small premium to the government for national health insurance, and get cavities filled for around $20/tooth. 
And when I returned to the USA I found many things that I was not happy with. The "American food" I had pined for I now realized was just incredibly unhealthy. Meat and potatoes and....wait, that's it? No green, red, orange, yellow, or purple vegetables?" Huge American kitchens meant that people just had tons of expired stuff laying around. In a fairly short amount of time we were already at the Asian market stocking up on things that reminded us of home.
I was expecting my first child and I quickly found out that the "American way" of birthing and raising babies was heavily influenced by fearmongering media, institutionalized by the medical system and full of advertisements from giant corporations. I quickly researched all of my options on my own, and organized my homebirth and decided I would be breastfeeding, baby-wearing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, and baby-led weaning.
But the good thing is that this is America and I have the power to decide to do what I feel is best for myself and my child(ren). I'm grateful for the freedoms I have and even though I will be bon dancing in my jinbei instead of waving a flag and singing "America the Beautiful" I am grateful for the independence I have as an American, and the independence I have gained by finally standing up for myself as a survivor. Yes, it's not just about America breaking off from Britain, it's for all  of us who had to break away from someone who was trying to hurt us and control us for their own gain.....this is OUR independence day too!