American

The cowardly attack on innocent church members is on the minds of everyone with a conscious today.  News coverage abounds, the outrage is present, and the abyss as Jon Stewart called the issue of race relations remains deep.  I won’t pretend to have an answer that will magically transform the world, but I would like to explore something at least tangentially related.

There was a time when America (the USA) was seen as a beacon of hope.  America was a land of opportunity. Immigrants from across the globe sought out our shores for a chance to be something.  Correction, immigrants sought to be an American.  That’s what I want to explore; what is an American, and what are the people of America seeking to be today?

Why would I want to explore these questions?  Simple, the answers will provide insight on how we as a nation seek to be united or unique.  I believe we want it both ways, and I wonder how that shapes us.

From a biology standpoint, human beings are complicated social animals.  Collectively, as a species, we have created an amazing world with wonderful technologies.  We don’t talk about ourselves that way though.  We devise ways to distinguish ourselves. We do this in a variety of methods.  We draw geological boundaries and become Asians, Africans, North Americans and so on.  Division continues, and we have countries, states, provinces, cities, towns, villages and hamlets.  Each of these subdivisions has unique perspectives and customs meaningful to those subsets.  I’m a “New Yorker” or I’m from SoCal.

We divide ourselves by ethnicities – skin color really:  Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic Asian – which generically are similar to the geolocations.  Then you can add in ideology – Christian, Muslim, Hindu, agnostic and so on.  Of course there are male and female as well.

If those divisions weren’t enough we can add others.  Wealth, is a little harder, but falls into the types of cars we drive or the size/location of homes.  I might be blue collar, trailer living, Chevy driving American.  You might be a BMW, white collar, Manhattan condo American.  We can add in education too.  Ivy League vs others.  Maybe, Penn State vs. Pittsburg.  I might be a Greek (Fraternity related) or independent. One Frat versus another.  Let’s add sports.  I follow the Redskins, you follow the Cowboys.

Here’s the point.  We divide ourselves readily.  We put ourselves in company that is like us.  This is natural. Note too, that while we put ourselves in categories, we put others into divisions as well. We have differences that make us unique.  These differences can provide a benefit to all. Society needs all kinds of people.  We need artist, doctors, lawyers, and yes even politicians.  Yet,  I can’t have everyone be an engineer and have no construction workers.  If  all we had were engineers we would have a lot of beautiful designs that never got built.  Differences are good, but that’s not the end of the story.

We are far more alike in my opinion than we are different.  I bleed red blood and so does every other human on this planet.  We all want love, adequate food, and a home.  I believe we all want to be valued and valuable.  We want to be respected.

Here’s the rub.  We get so excited in our drive to be unique that we lose sight of our commonality.  Additionally, we become fearful of the other divisions around us because we simply don’t understand them.  Further, random acts of an individual or small group become associated with a larger division.  I was mugged years ago in a city.  Walking late at night through a section of downtown, I was alone and became the target.  Two people jumped me and wanted by cash. I wasn’t hurt badly, and complied.  I could have attributed that incident perpetrated by two young black males as indicative of young black males.  I don’t.  I was accosted by two young thieves that also happened to be black.

My point remains simplistic.  I believe our society needs to be careful in celebrating our divisions. I believe it can (not always) come at the sake of losing our common heritage, our humanity.  I am not suggesting there be a complete loss of our individual heritage, I’m thankful for the range of styles and cultures – especially with food!  I love Asian cuisine, and Italian, English Fish and Chips, and most others as well.  The diversity is glorious, but I would rather celebrate that everyone would respect his fellow American.  I want to be able to celebrate that as an American we want what is best for our fellow American.  My hope is that we can step back and look at each other as a beautiful Human Being.  What would happen if we had a celebration of “American” where all came together with their heritage, yet stood as one America? Could it be a start of uniting us all?

I know everyone wants to stand out, be recognized as unique, but shouldn't we at the same time recognize that above that, we as America wants all Americans to be united?  If I ask who you are, my hope is that one day it will be not just sufficient, but desirable to simply say - "I'm an American, and I'm with you and for you."

Just a thought.

Till next time,

Blessings,

Brian