Posted on 12/01/2008 9:49:35 AM PST by lewisglad
A Lesson for Sarah Palin: Being a Real American
First I bristled and then I was horrified as I watched Sarah Palin draw a distinction between “real Americans and those that are not” during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Notice the absence of any mention of Native Americans in her call.
An immigrant from India, I am a Sikh-American, and wear the markers of my faith – long unshorn hair covered by a turban. Sarah Palin had just sundered the nation into “us and them,” and relegated people like me to the category of incomplete Americans.
I wondered what makes one a real American!
Sikhs have been in this country for over a century; Sikh workers participated in building the Panama Canal in 1903-04.
I have lived, worked and paid my taxes in this country since 1960 -- for almost half a century. That is more than two thirds of life. I protested against the Vietnam War, though somewhat gingerly since I was not a citizen then. I actively participated in rallies for equal rights during the years of Martin Luther King, and cheerfully marched in a parade led by Gloria Steinem and others down Fifth Avenue in New York City in support of women’s rights.
And during my academic career, I must have taught several thousand “real Americans” who have gone on to become physicians and dentists, and academicians who have served this nation admirably.
What does Sarah Palin and her ilk think I should do to become a “real American?” Do you think a crew cut would finally outweigh all the other things I have done in America and give me the good-housekeeping seal of approval? Or, is Sarah Palin and her ilk looking to racial and cultural purity?
I think the widely touted concept of America as a melting pot has, in part, contributed to our ambivalent thinking.
We forget that in a melting pot, the ingredients lose their individuality entirely, as if they were processed in a homogenizer. Some observers, instead, posited a tossed salad of many cultural, religious and ethnic peoples as the model for America. But we forget that salads may get tossed a tad too vigorously, and then some ingredients suffer needlessly; examples are the incarceration of the Japanese during the Second Word War, as also the long history of slavery and the Blacks. Also, the ingredients in a salad may interact with each other only minimally.
Perhaps a better analogy would be that of a mosaic, in which even the smallest piece has a place and enriches the whole pattern by its presence. But a mosaic, one could argue, may present what is not a dynamic but static reality.
So I offer you instead the analogy of a large multi-instrument orchestra. In a far corner of the ensemble sits someone with a triangle or cymbals – very minor components of the ensemble. But, nevertheless, each remains a critical piece that contributes vitally to the organically evolving performance. When the lowly triangle or the cymbals speak, even the mighty strings and the pianos listen, and no one can then deny that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Citizenship in this great society, to me, is a social contract with the nation in which each individual carries the same inherent rights and obligations as everyone else. The strength and vitality of this nation stems from the variety of immigrants and their endless stream from around the globe that constitute this society. It is their interaction that makes this country what it is – a beacon of hope and innovative energy to the world.
This is the America that becomes our ideal, even though reality may at times be at odds with it.
America is not just a place; it is an idea and an ideal that this nation has pursued for over 200 years with singular determination. My faith – Sikhism – too, holds for an egalitarian society. The two ideas come together in me to make me a Sikh-American
Sure there have been many Sarah Palins along the way, and there will surely be many more. But as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. said, “”The greatest virtue of a functioning democracy is its capacity for self-correction.”
Note: The author, Inder Jit Singh, is a professor of anatomy at New York University.
And this stupid Sikh is not?
The anachronistic use of the phrase, Melting-Pot has passed into the pre-multicultural age; the more apt one today is the Cusinart Culture where everything turns into an amorphous sludge.
Do you, or anyone, know what Palin was talking about when she said soething like this? I dont recall it.
America's greatest strength derives from a Constitutional form of government that was established as a founding principle of life in America. This nation began as an idea of personal liberty and a limit on the powers of government. If you do not accept this Constitution and see it as an obstacle to implementing your agenda, you aren't a "real American". If you believe that the courts should NOT be blind and should institute a special "social and economic justice" for the "underdog" who fights against "evil corporations" you are not a "real American".
The Constitution can be amended to change the guarantees and protections but it should not be reinterpreted through activists in black robes who acknowledge that it used to mean something other than what they WANT it to mean.
Too many immigrants come here from nations that do not respect the same liberties as enumerated in our Bill of Rights and therefore are quick to be willing to surrender them ("you don't REALLY need to own a gun...").
Socialism is coming to America 2.0.
Strangely enough, the county where Sarah Palin made her real America comment, Guilford County, North Carolina, went for Obama.
Beat me to it. I have ancestors generations back who were German, some who were Welch, and some who were Irish. I like sausage, I adore choral singing, and I have red hair. And I am an American. I owe no coin to where my people once were, and I give no honor to what was by inventing for myself a "dashed American" status.
Hey, Mr. Dressed-Like-Somewhere-Else, you go right ahead and do it. You wanna be proud of who your people were a bazillion years ago, fine. But if you act like "you aren't from around here" on purpose, not everyone will agree. The great thing about America is that we have the freedom not to like you, and that we are not yet compelled by law to pretend that we think whatever ideas you hold dear are just as good as the ones we love in our own brainpans. (At least, not outside of our socialist-run schools, anyway.)
I defend your right to act like a complete and utter foreigner, but be warned, not everyone you meet will think that is a good thing.
One thing that goes into the making of an American is that the Scots who came over brought this with them:
Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victorie.
Now’s the day, and now’s the hour;
See the front o’ battle lour;
See approach proud Edward’s power—
Chains and slaverie!
Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward’s grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee!
Wha for Scotland’s King and law
Freedom’s sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or freeman fa’?
Let him follow me!
By oppression’s woes and pains!
By your sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!
“Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty’s in every blow!
Let us do, or die!
“We believe the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all you hardworking, very patriotic, um, very pro-America areas of this great country ... those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom.”
That's a stupid thing to say and kind of makes this guy's point for him- why would you assume this guy does not bathe?
THANK you... This may have been in response to the many snobby bigoted comments of the Dems... I see nothing wrong with it, ironic since the Dems pretend they care about these ordinary people too.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/17/palin_clarifies_her_pro-americ.html “We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe” — here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers — “We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.”
She continued: “This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom.”
There is more than enough wrong in the author's viewpoint that we don't have to decend to the type of personal attack that we would expect to find at the KOS.
"Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean." -----Bucaroo Banzai
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin apologized yesterday for implying that some parts of the country are more American than others...In an interview on CNN, Palin said comments she made last week in North Carolina praising small towns as "the real America" and the "pro-America areas of this great nation" were not intended to suggest that other parts of the country are less patriotic or less American.
San Francisco is particularly hostile to America's military, even refusing to permit them to film a recruitment video on the Golden Gate Bridge. That is antiAmerican. There, I said it. Prove otherwise.
They “cling” to their religion (and culture).
Hey...my family has been here since mid-1700’s. What’s this guy’s point? Anyone who adds a prefix to “American” is no more American than a goldfish.
When Sarah Palin said that she enjoys being among “real Americans” she wasn't talking about any particular race or ethnic group. I know that's hard for liberals to believe, because liberals see everything as being made up of identity-based grievance mongering, as you demonstrate so aptly in your little shpiel.
But Sarah Palin was talking about something else, something equally difficult for liberals to understand. Because, you see, Sarah Palin was referring to patriots, to people who love their country, to people with pride in their nation and its achievements. How dare a politician state that she feels most comfortable amongst patriots!
Real Americans: patriotism, pride, love of country. These are things that you're clearly unfamiliar with, but perhaps some day you will be better acquainted with them.
But somehow, I doubt it.
>>>http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/17/palin_clarifies_her_pro-americ.html “We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe” — here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers — “We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.”
The county where Sarah Palin made these comments, Guilford County, North Carolina, went for Obama.
You know, buddy — it is a melting pot here. She did not have to mention each and every immigrant group TO America. Join the club or leave if you don’t like it. We are not a zillion little hyphenated neighborhoods at war with each other/ at least not yet.
Fair enough, after re-reading my comment, I should have made a different or no comment.
Yeah, you’re right. I aready got flack from other freepers. I should have made a different or no comment.
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