We Shall Overcome (feat. Daniel Wellington)

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What I'm Wearing: Jacket - Forever 21, White T-shirt - H&M, Pants - Good Fellow, Shoes - Converse, Watch - Daniel Wellington 

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"We Shall Overcome"

Dear readers,
Happy 4th of July. I feel so weird saying that. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was writing something hopeful about the future of this country we live in. My view and opinions continue to damper every time I turn on the news. I get a little more disappointed each time I see some unethical act or event. Having no American blood in me, I don't like what I see. If i'm being honest, California kind of feels separate from the United States. We aren't in middle America, but the chain reaction still affects this state and the other 49 states. In no way will I ever diss America,  because the issues we face is not at fault because of the land we live on. It is the people who do wrong and the people who support the wrong. That is where this country is at fault. I can go on and complain about the people leading America, but what good will that do. I can go and make obvious points about the hypocrites who walk alongside us and make it seem like they own the land we live on. I can go on about the full blooded American citizens who think because we are not white, that we owe them something because our skin color is not the same. But I won't, instead I want to let off this frustration I have inside of me. You see not all of us who live in this country are participating or supporting the bad that is going on around us. Some of us feel like we have no voice. I was sitting down doing some research for songwriting and I listened to "We Are The World" several times and sat on my floor crying. After I spent the last month really pushing "Let The Music Be Your Guide" I just feel like their is still some sort of  way we can band together to make this place better. We are the children of god and we need to figure out a way to let our voices be louder than the ones who try to drown us out. 

People come to America to live and thrive in the land of the free. But lately if you go to a newsstand you'll see the leader of this country on time magazine with a little girl crying because she is separated from her family. What in the world is going on? We go from an uprising in racism and discrimination, a huge jump in violence and death, and now the people leading this country want to separate little kids from their mothers, fathers, and families. Some of the families who are coming to America are trying to escape some horrid events in their lives. Instead they come to face another horrid event. My heart hurts because that is not the America I grew up in. Before that man became president I thought our voices were being heard. I felt this country was finally starting to be a little more united. Then when he got into office, things became more divided that ever. Literally all I ever see on the headlines is something bad. Every single day, it just seems to get worst. If there is one thing I have seen this past month, it is that people still want to band together and stand for the greater good. If I could take everyone and put them in one location and have us stand hand in hand, then maybe our voices will finally be louder than these evil people who continue to rise. I wish I could do that, but it is up to us to do that individually and around the people who are near us.
I wish this country didn't have all this bad going on. Because America could be a beautiful place, but some people get blinded by what they think is right. They think of themselves and not the greater good. If we keep going down the path we are on, i'm honestly scared for the next generations to come. They will enter a world of hate. I saw a billboard on twitter recently, it said something about liberals and that they should keep on driving til they leave Texas. So what? Now we are kicking legal citizens out states because people don't believe in these evil ways? When will it come to an end? When everyone of is 10 feet under? America has become one large food chain. People hating on people until one group is left standing. I just can't bring myself to think how they think. I don't want to know what goes on in their minds because it must be an evil place if they can support all this wrong doing. Our air was already getting bad, now it more polluted than ever, with hate. I know you guys come to read my story because it gives you hope, i'm sorry to talk about all this negativity, but that is what is gonna give us hope. If this makes you mad, then that will drive will help you to stand up and do something.
Because right now, we don't deserve to celebrate July 4th. As a whole country, we don't deserve to celebrate this beautiful land, because it may say we live in the land of the free, but we are not free until we are all united. We are not free until we accept every gender, ever race, every sexuality. Every person united, every man, woman, child, and family together and not separated by a wall. We don't deserve to celebrate this beautiful land of opportunity until everyone gets a chance to have their own opportunity. When that happens, then we can say I am proud to be an American. Yes all of us, even if we don't have an inch of American blood running through our veins. I appreciate all the men and women who continue to fight for the beautiful country. But while they are they are fighting for the land we live on, we need to band together and take care of business here. So that way we are worthy of the land that we live on. So it will be worth the fight for the men and women who protect this land and the people who occupy it. Because they aren't out there protecting us for nothing. We want them to come home to the beautiful land they think they left behind, not this divided landfill we currently live on.

I love America... Well the idea of it. I still think that idea is possible. Look at what it could be. It could bring many different cultures together and make something beautiful. America could be a work of art, if we just found a way to bring the citizens together again. I will never diss America, I just wish that we respected the land we live on, because it doesn't deserve all this hate that is filling it up. I hope that one day i'll be able to write an uplifting page about how good this country we live in, truly is. Until then, I hope that you and I can continue to keep moving forward and speak up for what is right. That way, one day, we shall overcome. Then we can finally honor those who fought to make this country free... back then, and now.

Love, Dom

Photographer: Steven Nguyen ​

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Stories From My Life - Chapter 7