The US is a nation built not on ethnicity, not on religion, not even on history but on an idea.
Remembering the fires and riots in the suburbs of Paris (and other European cities) nearly two years ago and thinking about the anger French President Sarkozy raises in some in France, I've been thinking about what's wrong with France (as a break from fretting over my motherland). It occured to me that the French need to change what it is to be French, as to the Germans what it is to be German, etc., etc. Frenchness can't just be an inbred set of genetic codes. Otherwise, there will always be people rioting in the streets.
"The poor will always be with you," so there's no need to add to the ranks of the disenfranchised be marking an entire portion of the country not of that country simply by virtue of their not having the "correct" genetic makeup. It's stupid and, honestly, just a continuation of the failed policy of colonization. Yes, yes, America is the Great Imperialist, even according to many here at home, but, honestly, we can't hold a candle to the awfulness of, say, Britian's colonial rule of the China, or what France did in Algeria. America is the child of Europe. We learned well, as you can see in some of our behavior in Iraq. But we, at least, are willing to say that someone from Iraq who becomes an American citizen is American, as are his children. Can't say the same of the French and Algerian immigrants.
The quote above, by a BBC reporter, a Brit, mind, and not some flag-waving FOX News toadie, is exactly what makes the US a country which, while deeply, deeply troubled, I believe will survive and flourish in the long run: This is a nation built upon ideas. Not on "whiteness" (in spite of what Lou Dobbs may think), not the Bible (in spite of what the Christian Right might think), but ideas: Ideas of human rights and equality, freedom and responsibility, potential and work.
The trouble is, the folks in charge right now--in the government, in business, the social leaders, too--don't understand that. Hopefully, we can change this. As Bill Clinton once said, and as Mr. Frei quotes in the linked article, "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America," so long as we remember what the US is really about and remember to fight for our ideas. Our ideals. Our great potential. Honestly, this is what makes us the greatest country in the world: We have potential that no other country has, because they are limited by their self-definitions, while we are a country based of the best ideals of humanity. Anyone who truly swears by these ideals, who carries them in their heart and mind, who is willing to die for them and, better yet, live by them, can call themselves American.
This is why I consider the Bush Government, the Christian Right, the Neocon movement, and many on the extreme right and left to be unAmerican: They do not live to or hold by the ideas which make the US the US, the ideas without which there would be no America. Their selfishness, their inability to see beyond their own agendas, their need to be right no matter what, cause them to act, at least, like they hate America. As a red-blooded American, I often find myself hating them for it.
I was going to forward this rant to my sister who lives in France, thinking she might be able to use this argument, or at least portions of it, the next time an in-law who's never been here mentions What Is Wrong With America. I decided against it, however, as I don't know if she can handle the thought of her little sister, at heart, being so pro-America.
Not pro current American foreign policy or even pro most of the national policies, but definitely, when you cut to the quick, to the core of what America is, yes, I'm a patriot. "American patriot," unfortunately, has been linked by both supporters of the current administration and some of their detractors with being pro-Bush. Why is it I can't be a patriotic American without being a supporter of policies which go directly against the ideas upon which America was founded? Must it not be the opposite? Must not those who would support leaders, national and local, whose policies are directly opposed to the ideas upon which our country was created and by which it is held together, be the unpatriotic ones?
I adore France, but it's deeply flawed. America is flawed, but I love it. Glass houses, anti-America Europeans. And, while America can learn a lot from the French medical system and the French abilities to talk about sex without having a hernia and drink alcohol in reasonable amounts and without the need to get piss-drunk, the French could learn from America about accepting those not like yourself and calling them fellow countrymen. Even and especially those with heavy accents.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Remember those France? You have national ideals, too. Do they only apply to the genetically French? Yes, America still has problems accepting whoever has been deemed the Other, but don't pretend you don't have problems like, and possibly worse than, ours.
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