Still American

On loving and leaving the United States

I just mailed off my ballot request for the upcoming U.S. federal election. This will be the second time I've voted in a presidential election while living abroad. The first time was voting for Barack Obama when we were living in Seoul.

A lot has changed in those 16 years. (I know, understatement of the century.)

In 2009, my husband and I moved from Korea back to metro Atlanta with our toddler daughter. Our son was born two years later. We lived there for the next 11 years before moving overseas again to Berlin.

We tried to be involved and active members of our community. I wrote for a local online news publication. I volunteered with the school system and for several nonprofits that worked to address homelessness, climate change, and inequality. My husband and I both campaigned for progressive political candidates and causes.

We were - and are - law-abiding, tax-paying, patriotic Americans.

Living in other countries has actually helped me understand how I share a certain perspective and way of being that are fundamentally different than people raised anywhere else. No matter how long I live away, I will always be American and love the country I was born and raised in.

I love its openness and loudness and overall lack of pretention. Its embrace of things that are new and innovative. The way that people of so many different cultures and backgrounds have come together - and continually come together - to weave and re-weave a society that is unique, creative, and always changing. It has always been this way, since the nation was formed. The land of opportunity.

That, to me, is the best part of America.

To be sure, this is a rose-tinted view, leaving out the country's founding on the backs of the genocide of the Indigenous peoples of the continent, that centuries of wealth and progress were built with the labor of enslaved people. Also that the nation's leaders have continually used the country's large size and wealth to bully, manipulate and exploit the people and resources of other countries. And, at the same time, they strive to keep the American population ignorant of its actions and the truth of its history.

I've recently seen posts on social media criticizing Americans who move to another country for political or economic reasons as abandoning their country and fellow citizens. But I can do everything here as a citizen than I could do at home - including demonstrate and protest issues of injustice.

I don't love that part of America.

I also don't love the super-heated nationalism, the reverence for violence, the need to cling to myths and falsified histories about our culture in order to feel "pride" in it.

There are an increasing number of other Americans who feel that the elements of America I don't like are the "real" America - and that we are un-American and should be treated like enemies of the state. That belief and similar ones - and the tendency of so many people to be armed and dangerous - is one of the main reasons we moved away.

But I have voted in every federal election I was eligible to vote in - and almost all of the state and local ones. I have given a lot of time and money to the candidates and causes I believe are important to making the country the best - the most prosperous, inclusive, and peaceful - that it can be.

And I will continue to do so.

U.S. law requires all citizens living abroad to file federal income tax declarations. (Most taxpayers who pay income tax in the countries where the money is earned receive a credit on the U.S. return that eliminates their U.S. liability. We are not taxed twice.) U.S. law allows all citizens -wherever they currently live - to vote in U.S. elections.

I've recently seen posts on social media criticizing Americans who move to another country for political or economic reasons as abandoning their country and fellow citizens. But I can do everything here as a citizen than I could do at home - including demonstrate and protest issues of injustice.

It would be different if I decided to check out and not remain an informed and engaged voter. There are always people who do that even without leaving the country. An estimated 40 percent of the U.S. voter-eligible population (VEP) did not vote in the last election.

So, it's essential that we stay informed and involved.

In his article, "Why Americans are Going Abroad," economist Lyman Stone argues that a large and engaged American diaspora can benefit U.S. society in many ways.

The growing American diaspora matters for American culture, economic vitality, and political influence. A large American diaspora can facilitate the spread of ideas from and to the United States. If Americans have welcoming communities abroad, they may have more of a “safety valve” when unemployment rises at home. And with many Americans abroad, the whole nation benefits from a legion of informal diplomats. Thus, if the diaspora is changing, it has consequences for those of us back home.

The most important thing we can do - if we care about our democracy - is to participate in it.

Register and vote in all elections in which you are able.

Cathi Harris is a writer and editor living in Berlin, Germany. In addition to this website, she writes a weekly newsletter, Alte Frau - New Life, about life in Berlin.