Whither America?
While we were growing up, America was the El Dorado, where every dream could turn into a reality with effort and enthusiasm. Those who left for those pastures came home to tell us that the country was one of immense promise for the young and inspired. They spoke of the universities with their libraries, research facilities, state-of-the-art laboratories, and wide campuses with students streaming in from all parts of the world in search of knowledge. A veritable repository of learning and opportunity.
America has been the land of the immigrant from the moment the first immigrants stepped off the Mayflower on to American shores. With imagination and creativity, grit and struggle, with encouragement and opportunity they carved out lives for themselves and contributed to the idea of America, and its ideals of freedom and diligence. Today, owing to the exclusionary vision of the powers-that-be, international students are barred from the universities, Green Card holders are under threat, and migrants are treated without humanity. So many individuals of different origins have made the country great in all fields of learning and culture and it is not worthwhile to go back to the drawing board. The country can only become greater with greater cooperation from all countries and more humane, inclusive policies. All progress rises out of mutual interdependence and the immigrant heritage is truly what makes America exceptional.
It is disappointing that the very ideals of freedom of expression and fairness of opportunity that America stood guardian for since the founding fathers should be under siege now. What the celebrated writer Toni Morrison said, 'In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate,' seems to ring true today. It would do well for America to hark back to the voice of Benjamin Franklin who said, 'God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the Rights of Man may pervade all the nations of the Earth so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say, 'This is my country.''
While we are far away from this idealised world today where every country is zealously guarding its turf, it would be right to realise the world would be more liveable if we can think in terms of mutual respect and dependence.
sudhadevi_nayak@yahoo.com
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