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Dear America, I Miss You
A letter from a Frenchman to an old friend who lost their way
My Dearest America,
Where have you been these past four years? What happened to you? I know you’re still here physically, but you’re a shell of your former self. You’re like empty black eyes staring at a candle flame: alight, but not alive.
I had witnessed you be amazing in 2008. In one night, it felt like you overcame centuries of unjust and unrepaired suffering. It appeared to be a new beginning, a second 1776 where men would be created equal and live equal lives and benefit from equal opportunities.
Of course, not everything was perfect, and the years between 2008 and 2016 revealed many cracks in your shining lacquer, but my love for you was unchanged. I believed in your institutions, I believed in your people and, more importantly, I believed in what you stood for.
You’ve always meant a great deal to me, America. You were a dream I was inspired by, an ideal I aspired towards.
I know everything about you, your history, your politics, your legal system. I know you better than I know my own country because you made me care for you. Movies, books, art, music, TV shows, and the culture you spread worldwide, the innovations you bring us, all this makes us love you, made me…
