It is very possible to love something that does not love you back. Think of any material item or food or even pet that you have fallen in love with over the years and it isn't possible to love you back or does not show the love you give it back. The pizza you ate last week and loved is not showing it's love back by adding weight to your body, and your adored car you cherish so much is not showing you that it cares for wants and needs by breaking down on the side of the highway making you spend hundreds of dollars just to get it fixed. However for some strange reason you still love it, and continue to eat the pizza or drive your car. The same thing applies for loving a country that does not love you back.
I live in a country that does not love me back along with millions of other people. This country does not like a young, bi-racial, woman, from a low class family co-habiting on it's soil among its wealthy, white, men that use and abuse it's opportunites and power. But that's the way life is and has always been. My white mother isn't fully loved by this country because she didn't have the opportunity to go to college among wealthy students pursuing a career that has a 401k. My mother is a women that has been degraded ever since she was a child just because of her gender. She and I are alike because we were told we couldn't achieve certain things or do certain things because we weren't "fit" for the job, but we all know it's because we have this little setback called a vagina.
Along with my family and friends I have been pushed aside and mistreated because of the color of my skin. Does a country that loves you put you in a neighborhood that makes you afraid to go to sleep at night? Does a country that loves you show you time after time that you won't amount to anything but a gangster or stripper? Does a country that loves you write you and your ancestry out of it's history books like you don't even exist? No. I thought my country would start to love me back when I seen a Black president taking charge and leading our country in the right way, and things actually were starting to change. I was offered opportunities I would've never had before, but now that we have a man entering office that wants to neglect women, minorities, and low class citizens, I am bracing myself for the damaging collision that is coming my way.
You might ask, how can you still love this country? and I say because love is the only way to fix something that is damaged. It is clear America is in need of major help, now more than ever. We have made process, but not nearly enough. It isn't about what we have done, it is about what we are going to do. When that pizza you love packs on pounds to your body you don't get mad at the pizza, you focus on yourself and losing the weight and you'll continue to eat the pizza. Then when your car you love so much breaks down on the side of the road you don't just leave it there, you spend your money to get it fixed and continue to drive it. The point is you don't throw away something you love or give up on it. You fix it and see how you can contribute to it's change.
I love America and always will through the ups and downs and whether it shows me hate or love. It has let me down a lot of times and has kept me up at night crying. However, it has given me happiness, memories, and freedom.
Love is one of the most powerful things to exist and will conquer anything in its way. It may take time and cause a lot of frustration, but it will all be worth it in the end.
