1 - What does build back better mean to you?

To me, it rings of so many possibilities, the first of which is we will not be going back to so-called “normal”. Normal for you is not what's normal for me.

2 - Because normal like so many things in the US is very racist. Normal is where over half of the population live their lives in some form of comfort and are resistant to change.

3 - Build back better is at its core addressing the issues that have led this country to elect such a man as trump, and seen 70 million citizens vote for him again. Issues that have not only kept white supremacy alive but have seen it grow beyond belief.

4 - To rebuild, the first thing to do is inspect the foundation, to see if they are solid enough to be rebuilt upon. To test the strength of our beliefs and our understanding of them.

5- Our foundations are a mess, we have principles that are famous throughout the world, other countries have by some curious twist of fate managed to implement our principles better than us! They've captured the essence of them, while we waste time trying to decipher components.

6- We claim to be a government of the people, by the people for the people, but have created a system where we constantly bypass the voice of the people in favor of the voice of elected officials some of which we elect for life in a democracy! Really?

7- We have managed to bungle this principle so much that someone with 4 million votes over his opponent is not the guaranteed “winner” of an election. The voices of more than 4 million people are simply tossed aside.

8 - A justice system where the highest policies and laws are not passed by the voice of the people but by which party holds the majority in the courts at any given time. Making our "laws' fluctuate like the tides on a beach.

9 - We claim that a person that has paid his debt to society, gets to start over with a clean slate, but that is so far from the truth, it cannot even see the truth.

10 - Ex-convicts keep paying the price long after they are released from prison, from finding jobs, to housing, to voting, their rights are constantly denied on the basis of past crimes for which they’ve already paid the price.

11 - We claim to believe in quality education for all the children of the nation, but in fact, the quality of our education system goes hand in hand with the amount of money one has. The more money you have the better-quality education you can afford.

12 - Rich communities see their coffers overflow with money for education and even extracurricular activities, while the poor ones see their budgets cut time and time again resulting in teachers spending their salaries to buy school supplies!

13 - We claim that health care is a right, but treat it like a business, for lack of having insurance or money people have died on steps of hospitals. Families have gone homeless after a medical emergency.

14 - The cost of medicine is so high that people die because they cannot afford their meds. People cross borders, travel to other countries to have surgeries and that still cost them less than having them in our country!

15 - We claim to believe in the sanctity of life, but constantly undermine that belief, reducing it to a sterile abortion debate, while ignoring the thousands of people that die from lack of basic health care, nutrition, crime, and other preventable deaths.

16 - We claim to believe in the right to bear arms but shoot minorities on sight if they carry a weapon or are suspected of having a weapon.

17 - We fail to balance that right against the right to life, by accepting as par for the course, the ever-climbing number of mass shootings, a phenomenon unique to our nation by its frequency alone.

18 - We claim to believe in equal rights but constantly undermine it by implementing laws and policies that chip and chip away at the rights of the most disenfranchised.

19 - We constantly interfere with consenting adults’ private lives. Allow businesses to discriminate according to religious beliefs and so much more.

20 - We claim separation of church and state, and invalidate it at every turn, from our holiday system based on Christian religion, to our swearing-in officials with hands-on religious books, even our money is printed “under god”.

21- Religion even interferes in our education system, where, in even public schools, such notions as “creation” are taught alongside science.

22- Our most famous cherished and worthiest principle that all are created equal has been turned into a joke, for inequality and inequity are so rampant in our country that every generation has seen civil protests erupt.

23- The fight for equality, equity, and justice has been ongoing since before the inception of this nation. Millions have struggled and fought to turn them into reality, to infuse them with truth.

24 - Building back better needs to be more than just window dressing, interior decoration to make our country look pretty for visitors, it needs to start by reinforcing the foundations of our democracy.

25 - Every principle needs to be carefully reviewed and examined for flaws and imperfections before being repaired, put back and cemented in place.

Muriel Vieux
November 7th, 2020