What Does It Mean?

The Internet is rife with videos of Americans behaving badly these days.  Are we collectively nastier than we used to be, or are there simply more cameras on cell phones to record and publish such events?  How often do people whip out their phones to record something good going down that hasn't been staged?  The questions are both moot because, let's face it, we are not a happy nation right now.  I am one of those unhappy people, but I'm not going out of my way to spread hate and discontent.  Life is too short to be consumed with bravado and showmanship.

This morning, I had occasion to see a video taken on a cell phone in what I assume was a fast-food restaurant.  A man was there with his Puerto Rican mother, to whom he was speaking in Spanish.  Another fellow--a disabled man in a wheelchair, presumed to be a veteran--interrupted them with profanity and racial slurs.  The bilingual man pushed back a bit by expressing amazement that the disabled dude seemed so angry...and the profanity from the disabled dude got worse.  It was no longer merely profane; it was obscene.  And I was ashamed.

Consider in your imagination, if you will, that this disabled man had the opportunity to, say, visit Paris.  Imagine him sitting in a bistro on a street in France, speaking only English to his companions. He doesn't speak French, and neither do his companions.  Who will interpret the menu to him?  How will he locate the restroom when he needs it?  Or his hotel?  You'd better bet he would find a server who speaks English and latch onto him/her for all he's worth in order to enjoy this tiny moment in his visit.    Then consider that a self-proclaimed French patriot accosts him for being an ungrateful tourist for not speaking French in HIS country.  He gets loud and profane.  Just nasty.  How will the tourist feel?  And what impressions of the French people will he take back to his own country?  It's not pretty.

In that regard, I learned early in life (age 10) that when one is in the minority in a society, one's life is subject to interpretation.  I was a Navy dependent, living in post-war Japan.  Of course, I had my parents and the US Navy behind me for support, but I do so remember lying in my bed when we first arrived, wondering how much different my life would be had I been born Japanese...and how risky it was to be a white-faced, curly-haired kid in a country of people with Asian characteristics.  I couldn't speak Japanese.  I didn't know or trust the culture, but it wasn't MY culture to judge!  I was treated with utmost respect by the Japanese people, and I soaked up every single bit of history and culture that I could at that age.  Still, I understood that I was a lucky kid to be born American.  I never, ever forgot that.  This is the reason I came up with the idea of the "accident of birth".

Through my years as a teacher, I have had students with zero experience with people of other cultures, who were spouting prejudice that could only have come from their parents or their own interpretation of where we were/are as a nation.   They were against gays, against Jews, against blacks, against the disabled or the fat or the poor--but none of them knew a single gay, Jew, or black person, etc.  More than once, I'm ashamed to say, I gave way to my anger at their words to say, "Unless you are willing to trade places with these people, you'd better go home and get on your knees to thank Almighty God that , by accident of birth, you were born in America and without disabilities or other things that you think are bad!!"  I'm not sure I ever made a difference with that, but I tried.  (Unfortunately, I had other colleagues that weren't so caring.  They fed the fuel of political strife.  I protested to them. They mostly laughed at me.)

Newsflash!  We, as a nation, are no longer leaders in anything.  Your pride in your country needs to be tempered by its place in the global world.  Your Constitutional rights mean nothing to other-world countries.  We are spoiled.  The world is laughing at us.  Some are even taking action to protect themselves from our seemingly recent isolationism.

Time for a little humility, America!  We know ourselves to be a proud and mighty nation, but without the confidence of the rest of the world, it doesn't mean much.  IF, by accident of birth, you were born with no disabilities, straight, into a white, Christian, American family, and have never suffered any accidents that will cause you to struggle in your life...and have never had need to go to a food pantry or take welfare, or money hand-outs from your parents or other family members, you are lucky and blessed--not entitled.

My biggest fear is that we are going to get a lesson in this beyond our control.  With that as my caveat, my prayer is that you get all you want in life, regardless of your neighbor's circumstances, and that you are able to live with that.  And may God have mercy on our souls.