Passport

My new passport came in the mail yesterday. The picture that I decided to submit was not the first photo that was taken. It was the second from a second retailer. I wasn’t happy with the photo that Staples took so I went to CVS. When I got home and compared the two pictures, I actually liked the way I looked in the Staples photo, but it was too dark. So, I went with the brighter light of the CVS photo, even though my mouth has a smile that belongs on a Muppet.

I hate this passport.

Despite the challenges of my photo submission, the picture is not the reason for my dissatisfaction with my United States passport.

I am horribly offended.

Other than me, there are no women depicted on any of the twenty-six pages, nor on the inside front or back cover. The images that have humans all display men – white men. The drawings and representations are probably supposed to characterize our history and our origin, our beginning. There is a prominent bald eagle, mountain ranges, steamboats and steam ships, and a glimpse of the top of the page of the Declaration of Independence. There are a colonial ship, buffalo and cattle, and men working the land.

When does anything “new” ever make it onto a government document? How about anything from the last 100 years? Mount Rushmore was completed in 1941, less than 100 years ago, but:  MORE MEN. This country honestly was built upon – and sustained – by more than that. We have a total of twenty-eight pages of old American images showcasing a pathetic and insulting reality:  the United States government still does not want to reflect upon, nor give credence nor validation to the other people that have helped build this country.

History has its place in the manuscript of our certificates, buildings and monuments. We gain insight into where we need to go by remembering where we came from. The past was not just a step towards the current time, it was the blueprint for moving forward, and more importantly, it was the lesson of what not to do again. Our story has come a long way. The pages of a book that afford us the freedom to enter a new land rich with its own history, and then return home to our present roots, should represent more than just the beginnings of our growth.

The story this passport tells excludes women. It negates all people of color, whether they were forced to come here or decided to arrive of their own volition. The current passport story blatantly and disgustingly ignores the native people of this country from whom the land was stolen, stripped, and marginally reallocated, before dismissing them once again as unworthy humans. Most of the people that toiled and taught, created and invented, or envisioned and prophesied are not represented in these pages. The book is not a document that reflects all or some. Instead, it focuses on the most of our culture and heritage and those that are clearly still in power.

From the plains to the mountains, the United States is also home to beautiful cities ripe with culture. From saguaro to palm tree the land bears greenery, flora, and fruit. Our National Parks preserve and showcase caverns, canyons, rivers, lakes, and wildlife, far more than just the bison. Over three and half million square miles of earth is claimed as the United States of America. Within that expanse is the equal number of images, milestones, constructions, progressions, and peoples, from which to choose defining symbols of our life as Americans. The Statue of Liberty can stay. The Liberty Bell can stay. The Declaration of Independence can remain. The saguaros, the palm trees, one mountain range, and the last image from space can stay. Everything else needs to go.

Men brought their families here and women worked hard alongside them. People of all colors have poured their souls, as well as their literal blood, sweat and tears, into the folds of the American batter. A mixture of old and new, the past blended into the present, should grace the pages of a legal document designed to take you home again. That home should be adequately represented for the person entitled to bear it.