I Heart America

Current locae - Bangalore India

I've always said, and I'll say it again: 'I was blessed to have been born in such a wretched country.' To have had access to the best of everything; the best education, the best nutrition, the best health care, the best...it's hard for me to come up with the list...the best what....shoes? The best hair products, for sure...(I know that now without a doubt after living abroad for the last few years)...the best source of cash...is what it comes down to.
How does one reconcile reaping the benefits of being the national of a country that garners said benefits from the literal blood, oil, sweat, and tears of countries who simply have a lesser military?

Sure, sure, for over two hundred years America has worked itself to the bone to build this 'great nation under God...' nevermind that it did so on the backs of imported slave-laborers and in the process swept aside an entire group of Native American nations who lived there in the first place.

But going that far back into history leaves me exhausted, and sad; and a very wise professor once suggested during more than one classroom session that we cannot judge those who wrote the history of the past on their actions simply because we have no idea what shoes they walked in, and cannot relate to their own socially constructed view of the world and its human and environmental contents. OK, those are my words and not his, exactly...but that was the message I got. I felt at the time that it was a sort-of 'letting them off the hook' - the 'them' being basically anyone who lived in the historical past and is attached by word and deed to the horrors of our American history. I still feel that way, but I get his point. The peoples of two hundred years ago didn't have access to information the way we do now. They had a very limited understanding of the world, the human body, and of the relationships their governments were forging (or forcing). You average everyday family had more to worry about just getting their harvest prepared and stored so they could survive a winter and they didn't have the leisure of multitudes of books by multitudes of voices, much less the time to learn to read them...there was no Gap offering appropriate seasonal clothes (though I hardly see how ANYthing out of the Gap is appropriate, unless one is in need of a uniform...) and there was no QFC at which to acquire produce, canned goods, paper towels, and ready-made sashimi rolls with fresh wasabi and those gorgeous little red foil packets of Kikkoman. There was no benefit of readily and mass-disseminated information, as there is today. It's not so simple to just say 'They didn't know any better.' But, it's something like that - at least, compared to where we stand today.

The question I am left with in all of this is: then how will those who see US as the historical 'them' look upon us and our actions? Will they be so quick to let us off the hook of responsibility? Will they be able to analyze our social structures, our media, our norms and perceptions and say, 'Oh, well....forgive them for they knew not what they did...'? From where I sit, I think not.

With all the technology we have, with all the information coming in to us from all angles, all perspectives, surely there is some bit of truth to be gleaned...surely we really DO know what's going on 'out there' - not to mention what's going on inside our own country, but that's another post entirely. Surely, we all realize that Bush wasn't actually voted into the presidency. Surely, we all realize at THIS point that there are no weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq...and never were. Surely, we can see the reaching grasping hand of greed in the form of multinational corporations with that reach ripping out the pockets of our politicians as they finger-puppet them in front of the television cameras.

They say history repeats itself...and it seems to be true. America is a (British!) nation built on the notion of manifest destiny and the process of colonization. What the United States is doing in Iraq and has done in Vietnam, Kuwait, countries in Africa, and God-knows-where-else is no different.
While the United States pretends on one hand to be waging a war on terrorism, and on the other to be granting the gift of democracy to countries like Iraq...and on the other to be protecting the nation-at-home (because we all know this government is an eight-armed monster of some sort...and not a human entity at all) Americans nicely buy recycled products and shop at Whole Foods for organic and free-range whatnots (yes, I agree its a fabulous place....but that isn't the point at all) and feel better about the whole-thing, when the WHOLE thing is that the president ISN'T the president the people voted for and this war isn't about ANYTHING 'they' told us it was about (not that you could convince me of a good reason for dive bombing family infested mud-brick neighborhoods ANYwhere for ANY reason.)

In a hundred, two hundred years...our future (if there is one) will look back at us and there won't BE any 'them' anymore - all of us (Americans) will be viewed as one big selfish wasteful war mongering society - because who can tell the difference when those of us who voted for the president are just as quiet and satiated by our instant-gratification lifestyles as those of us who didn't?
And those who aren't so satiated? Those who go to bed hungry at night? They might complain...if they had the time - but just like their ancestors two hundred years ago, they're still worried about basic survival.

But, I heart America.

I heart America because I'm female, educated, and free to do and say basically what I want, where, and when I want - which, as I've seen in my global travels is not a basic right of women-in-general. Oh, and I'm white, which as we all know makes my life a hell of a lot easier. I'm lucky and I know it. And I'm grateful. But, it was a natural accident that all of these gifts should have been bestowed on me. It was a complete fluke that I wasn't born in a country where I wouldn't even have the right to complain out loud, much less on published paper, about the sorry state of affairs in my country of origin - but thank God that I was...because I can't imagine having my eyes THIS wide open, with this much voice to give to what I see and having to keep my mouth shut.

XO from India.