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| An Ellis Island display showing the immigrants to America. |
THERE'S A LINE uttered by the Hillary Clinton character in Henry David Hwang's new production, Soft Power. She says, "Democracy will break your heart."
I love America, but some days -- especially during the Donald Trump reign -- she makes it damn hard.
My love for my country doesn't make me blind to its imperfections and its dark chapters. Too often, history textbooks pass over those historical events that show the warts and talk only about the good things America has done. As a result, students are fed the myth of American greatness and the false narrative that everything great about our country was because it was white.
It is this myth that drives the white supremacist movement and resulted in the election of Donald Trump.
Wearers of the MAGA hat have to ask themselves the question: When was America \great?
Was it when the Europeans came in and took the land from the native peoples?
Was it when the government forcibly took Indian children from their families tin an attempt to them into "good" Americans?
Was it when the native peoples' lands were forcibly taken from them?
Was when entire tribes were forced to move from their homelands to parched wastelands in the Trail of Tears?
Was it when the California native hunters and gatherers were forced to leave their traditional homes and relocated to the Spanish missions to become household servants, laborers and Christians?
Was it when the Founding Fathers couldn't bring themselves to count their African slaves as a whole person, depriving them of the "undeniable" rights "endowed" to white people (but, not women)?
Was it when those who tried to destroy the United States and lost the Civil War were allowed to erect statues to traitors and let them create a parallel myth of the genteel South that would have allowed slavery?
Was it completing Manifest Destiny, the westward expansion of the U.S. by stealing more land breaking treaty after treaty with the native peoples and to almost complete the genocide of an entire people and their culture?
Was it when child labor was expected and children were forced to work in the mines and factories at low wages and long hours?
Was it when white men created the Chinese Exclusion Act to cut off immigration from China and limit people coming from other Asian countries to "keep America white?"
Was it when interracial marriage was against the law?
Was it when nonwhites were forbidden to own land?
Was it during the Great Depression when the stock market crashed and thousands of banks failed making it harder for ordinary folk to make purchases to stimulate the marketplace. (Warning: A tax of imports made foreign goods too expensive for the everyday American public.)
Was it when America segregated African Americans and didn't allow them to drink from "white" fountains, use "white" bathrooms or attend "white" schools?"
Was it when greedy American businessmen overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and claimed the islands for their "America?"
Was it when the U.S.went behind the back of their Filipino allies andd made a secret deal with the Spaniards to take over the colonial Philippines so that Spain wouldn't have cede the islands to the revolutionaries?
Was it when the U.S. Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt broke their promise to Filipino soldiers who fought for the U.S. against Japanese invaders and denied the Filipino veterans citizenship and other benefits?
Was it when 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were imprisoned during World War II?
Was it when African Americans and other people of color were denied the right to vote through made-up Jim Crow laws?
Was it during the period when immigration from countries other than Europe were severely limited?
Was it when greedy investors and banks caused the housing market to crash with illegal lending practices at the expense of first-time homeowners and causing the Great Recession?
Was it when Vincent Chin was killed because auto workers thought he was Japanese?
I could go on ... but I don't want to just post a negative screed against America. Ignoring those historical events in school creates blind patriotism a my-country-right-or-wrong patriotism.
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But just concentrating on those negative aspects of our history would negate the greatness that is America. Without a doubt, our country has made great strides since its founding. For every one of those incidents listed above, there is another one that shows the good side of America. Many of the blemishes and flaws have been corrected -- but, not without resistance, I might add.
That's why I have faith in the U.S.A. The current administration and its attempts to turn back the clock is not "normal." That doesn't mean we should accept the assault on our civil rights, our human rights, without pointing out the injustice and threats to the Constitution.
What makes a hypocrite angriest is when his or her hypocrisy is pointed out to them. Their view becomes meaningless.
The recent demonstrations against Trump immigration policies, the renewed activism, the new unending energy of young highschoolers challenging the mighty NRA, the revived civic engagement, all the first-time AAPI candidates who haven't given up hope and have chosen to run for office are all part of that process, the individuals who aided the victims of natural calamities when the government wasn't there. They give me hope. For every marcher, for every protest sign, there are thousands more who were not able to participate but nevertheless, believe in the same dreams.
Being an American requires you to be an optimist because America is not and has never been perfect. I believe the good people of America who continue to strive for that "more perfect Union" -- the American Dream (if you will) -- will overcome the current aberration from democracy and triumph in the end.
America is not a picket fence around a single-family home with a chicken in every pot. Nor is America a particular era from our past. It is not even a place.
America is an ideal. It is the future. America is in the hearts of men and women everywhere who want justice, who want equality, who believe in peace, who accepts that which is different, who welcome the strangers to our shores.
What makes America great is the continuing pursuit of that ideal -- a greater future and the belief that we shall overcome any obstacles thrown in our path and the darkness over our land will give way to a new dawn.
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| New American citizens celebrate their choice of country. ________________________________________________________________________________ |
