On a message board to which I belong, someone posted a thread starting with the contents of an email she received entitled, "KILL AN AMERICAN". It was attributed to an Australian dentist (though I think it was actually written by a law professor in Virginia about two weeks after the 9/11 attacks) and was predicated upon a story--veracity unknown by me--that there was a piece in a Pakistani newspaper basically offering a bounty on American heads. It follows here in greatly reduced size for those who want to read it.
KILL AN AMERICAN
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Kill an American? A Must Read!
Finally someone says it right !!!
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one:
An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness. An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Aphganistan.
Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least.
The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2002 earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.
Pass this around the World.
This thread has been sticking in my craw and I think I figured out why: it is because it seems to claim that somehow Americans (however we are defined) are better than our critics. It is a specious argument at best, and supports Us v. Them at a time when bridge-building seems of paramount importance to me. Are there Americans who are actually so naive as to think that no reasonable non-American man or woman has anything but friendly feelings toward the United States of America? Are there Americans who think we leave such a gentle footprint in politics and commerce around the world that no one could possibly have a legitimate criticism of us, much less harbor rancor or hatred? Are we the Jesus Christ of nations? The Dalai Lama of governments? The Ghandi of global citizens? (I'm thinking pretty much, "no".)
This jingoistic diatribe does not stand up very well in the face of (speaking of Cherokees) The Trail of Tears , slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, Japanese internment camps, etc. "Uh-MURR-ka" has embedded problems which, much like asbestos fibers, resist easy disposition. Matthew Shepard was beaten to death by Americans. James Byrd was dragged to death by Americans (and then it was reinacted by Americans: New York City firefighters wearing blackface in a Labor Day parade. At least one person each American knows was raped by another American. Some children are abused and exploited by their American parents. Americans are suing American clergy for acts of sexual abuse. Personally, I think that the pieces like "KILL AN AMERICAN" foster an unthinking, potentially rabid, mob mentality that gets confused with patriotism. Yes, it is an effective rallying point; and it is founded upon an elitist perspective that limits our ability to see how the United States of America has contributed to world strife, on our shores and off.
I feel privileged to be an American in so many ways. Out of respect for my country and for myself, I choose to keep my eyes open to our flaws as well as our gifts rather than trying to duck the stuff that is less pride-inspiring. Certainly, as a nation, our work is far from done. For example, we are arguably the wealthiest nation on the planet, yet our infant morality rate is twice that of Japan and higher than the UK, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Denmark, Greece, and many other "civilized" nations. It matters. And no matter how loudly we chant "U.S.A.!" we will be unable to drown out the credible American voice that speak to the multi-headed hydra of social injustice with which we continue to grapple.
I think the framers of our nation were visionaries and that, at our best, we are a nation of heart and spirit. I also think that we are not the only nation of heart and spirit and we are far from free of corruption or heinous acts. Just as each of us, as humans, has a mixed track record, so does this great nation.
A little humility is warranted, in my opinion, and will go a lot further to creating the kind of harmonious peaceful world so many of us say we want than will evoking a romanticized view of oh-so-human America. Perhaps I am making more of this than some of you will think warranted; all I can say is that as we stand poised on the brink of an unjustifiable (in my opinion) war, in which lives of people we know and people we don not know will be permanently altered, it makes me heartsick to read things like this "KILL AN AMERICAN" piece. I do not believe that blind patriotism is patriotism at all. I believe that true patriotism requires owning as much of the truth as we can know and remaining open to the fact that there is plenty we will never know. Within those limits, we are obliged to acknowledge the bad with the good and responsible citizenship requires that we must diligently resist the temptation to let the light of our analysis to be cast at too great a slant. To do otherwise is reckless and prevents us from learning from our history--such that we run the risk of being forever defined by its worst aspects.
Oh, and for the record, there are plenty of "bloodthirsty tyrants" the predate Amerigo Vespucci, let alone America.
Another voice from the melting pot,
~M
Copyright 2003 Seasmoke All rights reserved.
posted by Morgan @ 15:10
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