An Immigrants Perspective

I don't look like your typical Immigrant. If you put me in a group of people and had to guess which one of us is an Immigrant, I'd probably be your least likely pick. I have no accent, I'm 100% American Educated. My eyes are blue, my hair blond, my skin as white as can be. Still was not born American. I was born in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, a country where my family goes back generations, a line of farmers and British Loyalists.
Even though I seem like an American, I have a strong Canadian identity and still view America through the lens of an immigrant. The American Dream, a promise of a nation of freedom and equality for all. A nation where a man who is no better off than anyone else, maybe even poor and living in the gutter, can make his dream come true through hard work and perseverance.
This country can be the greatest country in the world, but there are some changes that need to be made. Of course I'm a liberal and there are the typical liberal views I have. But just on the basis of American society, the cynicism and hatred of government by the people does not help the process. If you vote for someone one day but then bitch about them the next, then vote for them again, its not changing anything. It happens again and again, on average 80% of congress is reelected every election cycle. To get educated on political issues may be boring, but its how this great republic was built, and how it needs to be to remain.
I have great hope for this nation, I see it everywhere. But the people cannot allow voices of hatred and ignorance to overcome the voices of reason and compromise. I have a deep love for America, but it seems as the Americans themselves have lost that same love for their own nation, and construe it to reflect their own fears. If this country can get past that it will be a truly amazing nation. A spectacle for the entire world to respect and admire.