“Be afraid, very afraid. Billary sez so.” – chiefbigknife
This can’t be serious. The first comment, the first guy to have the balls to write something under this post on a New York Times top 50 website, on a website headed up by the woman who brought The New Yorker back from the grave, on a website where content from the most prestigious of places is aggregated with pride, a man chooses to mock the warning of the united states government all for a poorly landed joke.
Obvious point #1: it’s a free country people can post what they want in the comments section of a well traveled website.
Obvious point #2: Just because one moron thinks he’s funnier than the rest, doesn’t mean we have a country full of morons.
Then why bother with this comment? Unfortunately, I believe this verbal dismissal of our administration reflects an attitude that has struck a significant portion of the nation in a most dangerous way. I cannot help but notice that while certain individuals in our country not only take the wonderfully arrogant stance of mocking our leadership as a dismissal of a viable terror threat, some also look at the international community as a joke. Because a few of us hold so dearly their complete ignorance towards global conflict, our country as a whole is yet to embrace the effects of globalization.
Open your passport and turn to pages 18 and 19. (This only applies to those who have a new passport with a RFID chip in it, you can tell by the little square logo printed on the front cover underneath “United States of America”) there you will find a quote from Ike himself:
Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America. - President Dwight D. EisenhowerLet's take "the heart of America" for its literal translation. Travel to Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans or any major coastal city of our nation and you will find people who are American international citizens. These international citizens participate in the international community in a variety of ways. They travel the globe, urge to understand different cultures, create business that mare multinational, learn different languages, accept different customs, dare I say they care about the safety threats of other countries. This is not to say that Americans from the Midwest, or the Rockies or the "Bible Belt" are not capable of being internationally aware citizens, but I argue that not all of America, much like our friend "ChiefBigKinfe," has accepted the American doctrine of international compassion in their heart. It may have scratched the edges of their hearts; it may be a nice idea to some. But at the core of our compatriots hearts - and therefore in the heart of America - globalization has not come to pass.
Americans confronted this discrepancy between progressive internationals and American stalwarts during the 2008 election when then Vice Presidential candidate sarah Palin began discriminating between "real America" and the rest of the country. A media backlash instantly swept across the country, calling out Palin for calling urban, upper-middle class Americans being something other than American.
Ultimately, I envision that being American will eventually mean to care abut the state of the international community. As of now, our economy, energy, politics, and safety all rely in some way shape or form on the abilities of other nations. We are each directly affected by the actions of other nations, whether or not we solicit their interaction. While nearly every aspect of our lives has become internationally intertwined, the only part that every American cannot come to terms with is sharing human interests with the people who are just as intertwined with us as we are them.
Monotheistic religion strives for harmony by having a world of people who work together. Whether in conflict or in contract, we have created systems that allow for every person to interact with each other. Despite this infrastructural globalization, America is yet to reach Eisenhower's level of global cooperation - the concept of working together has not passed through the heart of America. We are not ready to take the goals and aspirations of other nations and treat them as our own. Should it come to pass in the hearts of each nation, maybe then we will have the harmony that has been reserved for religious futures, one that enables a global community, working to improve life for all.
Put simply, were just not all ready to be international citizens yet.
great post, additional point:
ReplyDeleteI think you have to consider a bit of the why? in your ideas about Americans (in the heartland anyway) having mostly blank passports. Simply put: geography. Yes there is a lot to say about national ego, but for the most part we are very much separate from Europe, after all there are only 3 countries on our continent - Europe (and the dozens of countries encased within, all easy to travel between) is across a big ass river. Maybe the solution to this particular dilemma can be solved by easing the "travel bar".
Let's say that travel is directly correlated with "international citizenship", making it simpler to travel, and substantially cheaper, is really the only way to make it something that will happen more, especially for those that don't live on coasts to do (fuck connecting flights man).
I'd write more but I'm going to invent teleportation and fix America.