Whose America Is It, Anyway?

---"This is not America, no"--David Bowie

This is a scary time for America. Too many are out of work and the economy is not progressing at the rate we all hoped it would. We are at war in a country on behalf of a corrupt government that has shown no signs of becoming a good partner with us on their own behalf. And our leaders have turned petty and ineffective in spite of all these problems that they were hired to solve.

Of course, people are angry, and rightly so. The approval rating of congress, Democrats, and Republicans is at a record low. It's fair to say that the public at large is disgusted with both parties.

But are we citizens so much better? Do we hold ourselves to the same standards we do our elected officials?

I'm not so sure.

I can't remember a time in my 39 years (not so long, I know) on this planet when our country was more divided and full of anger and hate.

While the members of congress are locked in a state of election year paralysis, we are caught up in a web of fear.

Fear of those who do not look like us, talk like us, or think like us. Despite all evidence to the contrary, over 20% of the people in this country believe the President was not born here, and is a secret Muslim (as if being a Muslim is in itself a bad thing). They believe this even though one of the largest issues of the 2008 election was that of his controversial Christian Pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

Over 50% of the folks in the USA believe that while it is quite likely that legal Mexican-American citizens will have their civil rights violated by Arizona's stalled immigration bill, that it should still become law.

Over 70% of those surveyed believe that the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" (which is neither a mosque nor located on Ground Zero) should not be allowed to set up over two city blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center, even though many of them believe they have the right to do so. Do so many of us think that all Muslims are terrorists? A poll released this week states that over 50% of the public is suspicious of Muslim Americans, and over 20% don't believe that Muslims should be allowed to run for President.

Much of this sturm und drang stems from people who believe themselves to be strict constitutional constructionists. Yet many of them are for repealing the 14th amendment that created birthright citizenship, and seem to want to apply freedom of religion to their faith only.

And what of those of us who are against all that I just typed onto my virtual page? Are we seizing this moment to restate what this country is supposed to stand for? I suppose some of us are. Maybe the rest of us are too passive or simply not loud enough to be heard above the din of talk radio and cable news. Or, maybe we're just tired.

We certainly don't get any inspiration or assistance from politicians who should know better. People like Harry Reid, who through an aide (how courageous) stated that the NYC mosque should be built somewhere else. Only a couple of days later, Howard Dean (!) essentially concurred. Even worse, are all those New York politicians (I'm looking at you Weiner and Schumer) who are strangely silent on this issue.

They are guilty of the same deafening silence that you get from Democrats in Arizona and Texas who seethed quietly when the nation's Attorney General sued the state of Arizona to halt the immigration bill that would usurp government authority and is therefore unconstitutional.

Why are these public servants behaving this way? Well, because it's an election year, silly. And God forbid they stand up for what they believe in when it's potentially unpopular. These brave souls would rather be re-elected than be remembered for doing anything worthwhile.

History will not judge them well.

At a time when people are spreading xenophobic, hate filled misinformation about everything from immigration, equal rights, and religious freedom, to the very citizenship of our highest democratically elected official, they fall far too short.

And so do we.

Now, I know there is a tendency for people to refer to the era they live in as either the best or the worst of times--although you don't hear many claiming the former--and I'm not trying to say that. But just ask your average person of faith when they think the "end times" will be, and I guarantee you that 7 out of 10 believe it will be in their lifetime. We are a nation of narcicists.

This country has of course, survived terrible events. From natural disasters to man made, and wars both world and civil.

Even greater is the progress we have made when we have turned back our own worst instincts.

Slavery, the disregard of the rights of minorities, Japanese internment camps in WWII, McCarthyism, race riots, and the assassinations of two Kennedy's and a King.

All these horrors we have survived, and we will get through this too. The question is: What will we be on the other side? What will we have learned? Will we progress or regress?

These questions are all too open, and the answers far too unclear.

Whose America will this be? Will it be my America, your America, or our America? I'd love to place my bet on the third option, but the truth is, I haven't got a clue.

Sumo-Pop
August 20, 2010