Onita Matthees

“I'm Losing Faith in My Favorite Country

Throughout my life, the United States has been my favorite country, save and except for Canada, where I was born, raised, educated, and still live for six months each year. As a child growing up in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, I aggressively bought and saved baseball cards of American and National League players, spent hours watching snowy images of American baseball and football games on black and white television and longed for the day when I could travel to that great country. Every Saturday afternoon, me and the boys would pay twelve cents to go the show and watch U.S. made movies, and particularly, the Superman serial. Then I got my chance. My father, who worked for B.F. Goodrich, took my brother and me to watch the Cleveland Indians play baseball in the Mistake on the Lake in Cleveland. At last I had made it to the big time. I thought it was an amazing stadium and it was certainly not a mistake. Amazingly, the Americans thought we were Americans.

I loved the United States, and everything about the country: its people, its movies, its comic books, its sports, and a great deal more. The country was alive and growing. No, exploding. It was the golden age of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The American dream was alive and well, but demanded hard work, honesty, and frugality. Everyone understood that. Even the politicians.

Then everything changed.”
― Stephen Douglass

“The whole of life, in all its complexity and beauty, has been etched into the gold of words.”
― Yevgeny Zamyatin, We

“DANFORTH, [sharply to PARRIS:} Bring her out! And tell her not one word of what's been spoken here. And let you knock before you enter. [PARRIS goes out.] Now we shall touch the bottom of this swamp. [To PROCTOR:] Your wife, you say, is an honest woman.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“Each person has what he doesn't want, and other people have what he does want.”
― Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat