I used to watch you on TV and, honestly, I agreed with a lot of what you said.
You were blunt. You believed in accountability. You didn’t have much patience for excuses, and I could appreciate that.
Then I saw your recent interview.
And ma’am…
I really had to sit there and wonder what the hell happened.
You said America is the greatest country in the world. You said America has been good to you. And then you said that if somebody doesn’t like this country, they should go somewhere else instead of trying to change it.
But Judy, here’s where you lose me.
Greatest for who?
Beautiful for who?
Because two people can live in the exact same country and experience two completely different Americas.
Your grandfather came to New York as an immigrant in 1903 and was able to build a life here.
That is part of your family’s American story.
But it is not everybody’s American story.
There were people already on this land whose communities were displaced as the country expanded.
There were generations of enslaved Africans whose labor helped build enormous amounts of American wealth while they themselves were denied freedom.
There were Black Americans who were born here, whose parents were born here, whose grandparents were born here, and who still had to fight for rights this country claimed belonged to everybody.
So when somebody says, “America has been good to me,” I can respect that.
What I cannot respect is turning your experience with America into the measuring stick for everyone else’s.
America being good to you does not mean America has been equally good to everybody.
And this idea that if I criticize my country I should leave?
No.
Absolutely not.
If something is wrong with my house, I don’t abandon the house because somebody else is comfortable in it.
I fix what’s wrong.
And let’s be clear: America has changed throughout its history because people demanded that it change.
People protested.
People organized.
People challenged laws.
People challenged traditions.
People challenged the very definition of who was allowed to participate in this country.
So telling people not to try to change America ignores the fact that America has always been changing.
And frankly, some of those changes are the reason many of us have the rights we have today.
So no, Judy.
I don’t have to go anywhere.
I can love where I live and still criticize it.
I can appreciate what this country has given me while being angry about what it has taken from others.
I can recognize progress without pretending injustice disappeared.
And I damn sure don’t have to accept somebody else’s version of America just because America happened to work beautifully for them.
You call America your home.
So do I.
And people who live in a home have every right to say when something in that home needs fixing.
That isn’t hatred.
That isn’t disloyalty.
That is ownership.
So if the house needs work?
I’m not leaving.
Pass me the damn toolbox.
— Spice
UT. Without the I.
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