Wednesday night, I got comfortable with a bowl of strawberries, a can of seltzer and a blanket in front of the TV to watch The Republican Convention. To me, it's like a gory medical show… I can’t stand it but I just keep looking. I can be respectful—Trump’s son did a fine job talking up his dad. Granted, that isn't a very tough thing to do… I can talk up my dad, too. Mike Pence made it pretty clear he hasn't heard of separation of church and state. And, of course, Melania Trump did an incredible impression of Michelle Obama. One thing you cannot miss when watching these conventions is the number of signs being waved around that say “Make America Great Again” in capital letters.

At first glance, the slogan is fine—cute, even. Makes me think of hot rods and milkshakes. But as I read and reread the slogan I notice the arrogance and privilege it is doused in. America was great in the past but not for everyone. America was great for white people and America was great for men and America was great for Catholics and America was great for the white collars. America was great for the people flailing those signs around… and that’s about it.

I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to go back to when slavery was the norm. I don’t want to go back to when women could not work outside of the house. I don’t want to go back to when sexual harassment in the work place was a light joke. I don’t want to go back to when we put Japanese families in interment camps. I don’t want to go back to when abortions had to be done back-alley style. I do not want to go back to the America that sent black and white children to separate schools. And I don’t want to go back to the America that sprayed fire hoses on black students. I don’t want the America that murdered Natives. I don’t want to go back to when little girls were not allowed in the classroom. I don’t want to go back to the America that would not let my friends marry the girl she is in love with. I don’t want to go back.

Telling us that we should “make America great again” is like telling us we should take fifteen steps back. I’m proud to live here, in today’s America. I’m proud to live in a country where a man can marry whoever he loves, where women have rights to their reproductive organs and where race doesn’t decide our fate. I’m proud to be young and progressive in this country. I’m proud to be overcoming lame stereotypes some dusty white dude put in place.

I don’t want to make America great again. I want to make America great. Period. We’re progressive and we’re smart and we’re accepting and we’re free. We don’t need the church breathing down our necks and we want basic rights like equal pay. Sorry, Mildred, we don’t want your white picket fence and institutionalized racism. We want to keep moving forward. We want to keep going and keep getting greater. We don’t want to keep looking back… it makes it too hard to go forward.