“Billionaire” is now a curse word. “Woke” is now an insult. Notice what they share: each one ends an argument before it starts.
That is what a label does. It saves you the trouble of thinking. Slap the right word on a person or idea, and the crowd knows to cheer or boo. The word does the work.
Meanwhile, the real problems sit untouched.
For twenty-five years, both parties have taken turns in charge. We spend more than $5 trillion a year on health care and still leave tens of millions uninsured. We owe nearly $39 trillion in debt and add to it daily. Both sides drove us here. The labels never saved us.
I came here in 1976 with little but hope, and America gave me room to rise. I needed two things: a floor beneath me, so one bad year could not sink me, and open air above, so hard work could carry me up. When people fall, we help them up, and guard the freedom to build and succeed. Compassion and opportunity are not opposites.
Labels often start from real anger and real wrongs. But once a word does our thinking, it stops fixing what caused it.
Take “billionaire.” Say it right, and the case seems closed. But what does it tell you? Some built companies that gave us things we use daily and jobs for thousands. Others inherited a pile and added little. One word cannot tell the builder from the taker.
Andrew Carnegie would be a billionaire today. He arrived from Scotland at twelve, nearly penniless, and built the steel empire that helped build America. He was hard on his workers; then gave away about 90 percent of his fortune and funded more than 2,500 libraries so poor children could read for free. Greedy billionaire or great giver? He was both. One word will never tell the whole story.
Now flip it. “Woke” began as a simple idea: stay awake to unfairness. Then it became a political label. The word stopped describing and started accusing.
Different words, same habit. Both let you win without solving anything. Neither has fixed a thing.
Strip the labels away, and most people want the same things: enough to eat, a home they can afford, good schools, and the freedom to start a business and prosper if it works. Not left-wing hopes or right-wing hopes. Human ones.
So, judge every idea by one test. Does it move my neighbors toward that life and still leave them free to climb? If yes, I do not care what label it wears. If no, I do not care how clever it sounds.
Millions of us, worn out by the fighting, fit in neither political box. We want good schools and safe streets, a secure border, and a humane way in. We are tired of choosing sides in a fight that fixes nothing.
Here is what we can do. The next time a label comes flying — billionaire, woke, socialist, fascist; just stop. Do not pass it on. Ask the question it was built to skip. Check the record before you cheer or boo. When you vote, back the people who solve problems, not the ones who stir up anger.
None of this requires permission from a party. It requires citizens.
This is still the country that took in a young man from India and gave him room to build a life. A country that can do that can balance a budget, mend immigration, and care for its sick. We ended slavery while at war with ourselves. We beat the Depression with a fraction of today’s wealth.
We do not need another label. We need to get to work.
The next chapter of America will not be written by the people who get better at fighting over words. It will be written by those who fix what is broken. Let it be us.
Authors Bio: Kam Shenai is Co-Founder of AAPI Coming Together (ACT Florida). He holds an MS from UC Berkley. Currently serves as Chair of the Myrtle Creek District Board and on the Board of Trustees for UCF Lake Nona Hospital. He is a patient advocate with the National Kidney Foundation. Kam is also a member of the League of Women Voters of Orange County.