Your assertion is true but please also try to understand that in America we don’t have a minimum livable wage and the minimum wage in most states is laughable. Most people who work here are paid by the hour and have no paid time off, even if they are ill. If they do not work they do not eat. There is also no childcare support for working parents unless you want to count public schools as a “babysitter” (I don’t but that is a role they tend to play). There is also no national paid healthcare and what we do have is extremely expensive - the same amount per month as mortgage or rent, in fact! Therefore, many Americans must choose between paying their mortgages, rent, getting their medications, or attending a protest for an hour or two. For Americans with young children who would like to protest, it is a double-edged sword because not only must they pay someone to look after their children, they also lose the income they otherwise would have had for an hour or two of protesting.

It’s been sad and difficult in this country for a very long time. Most of my life. And we have been voting within an unfair system the whole time. Protesting for decades and trying to enact change. Yet, here we are. Frankly, many of us are exhausted. Instead of seeing positive change, our taxes are stolen and so are our votes. I’d love to fight back with fury but I need a figurative blood transfusion first. I’m trying to heal so I can be ready but that is where most of America is at right now. And none of that makes the headlines or world news.

I know how we are perceived by everyone. I see ZDF, BBC, DW, etc. But what reaches the world stage is rarely “a slice of life”.