I love America. Now it stands to lose a generation of people like me.
The Trump administration's attack on Harvard is a clear warning to all current and future international students in the United States. Cities across the country will lose an annual influx of bright young people, Boston more than many. This is particularly depressing for foreigners who love and admire America. People like me.
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America stands to lose more than tuition at its universities. International students contribute more than $
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Equally important, America's university system was an ace in the hole in terms of international diplomacy. It could attract the best and the brightest from across the globe and turn them into friends or future citizens. Comparatively few students considered going to China to pursue their dreams. But many will now avoid the uncertainty that now comes with studying in the United States.
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My love for America started early. I went to kindergarten here while my dad attended Duke University on a student visa. I loved the Power Rangers and chasing a ball with a swarm of kids playing soccer. The first book I read aloud was the 1961 American children's classic '
My admiration deepened as an undergraduate at Princeton University. The conservative legal scholar
I became a staunch defender of the country. Although I'm aware of its many contradictions, I am quick to mention America's contributions to the world.
In the 18th century, the immortal prose of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution heralded the modern rebirth of democratic government around the globe. The next three centuries loosed a torrent of world-changing inventions that drew on research from many countries and became supercharged in the US.
All of these come from America. Many come directly from its universities.
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America's genius seems to stem from a culture of trying new things, along with the political and economic institutions that allow them to scale. In Denmark we are slower to celebrate individual achievement. In the emblematic fairy tale, written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in 1843, an
I was wrapping up the semester at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government when the news broke. My classmates and I trembled. Would we graduate? We risked losing everything we had worked for.
Many prospective international students will now look at America and decide it is not worth the risk. Not when the government could yank their university's ability to host international students on a whim. Not when the government could revoke their visas
Scholarship funders will also think twice. A
Any university could be next.
I remain hopeful that America will return to the veneration for knowledge and democratic institutions for which it has long been admired on the global stage. But today those ideals are tinder for an out-of-control bonfire. The country's ability to attract talent will be diminished for years, if not decades.
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America remains a shining city on a hill. But only because it has set itself on fire.
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