by Editors

America –Thank God– Is not Its Leadership

 

 

Preface (by DW Foreign Policy Editor, Dusty Schoch) –

Len Carrier just forwarded me an article written by a law professor shortly after 9/11/01. He wrote it in response to reading an article in an Pakistani newspaper where someone had posted an ad offering a reward for any person’s killing an American….any American.  The author of the article* was an American law school professor named Peter Ferrara, and his sentiments expressed nearly six years ago in the wake of bin Laden’s assault on “America” are just as valid today as they were then, in spite of what Bush and the neo-cons have done to America’s image abroad and in spite of the fact that what we have done in Afghanistan and Iraq was—in nearly every respect—wrong.

In forming and maintaining my views of and feelings for my native America, I try to keep in mind what a dear friend and mentor told me once about my love and feelings for my friends.  She (my mentor and friend) and I were speaking one day about a mutual friend who had recently committed a really foolish and arguably “bad” act…maybe not as foolish or bad as militarily invading a sovereign country on false pretenses, but clearly a reprehensible thing.  I was saying to my friend that, in spite of what our mutual friend had done, I still found it impossible not to care for him and want to keep him for my friend. I’ll never forget what my friend, Maggie Crow, said to me that day. In regard to the same mutual friend, she said,  “Dusty, I still love him too.  I never loved him for being perfect.”

One day, during the mid-stages of the war in Iraq, I was discussing with Len Carrier my growing “disenchantment” with “America” as an evolving country. I was ashamed (and still am) for what we, as Americans, were doing in the Middle East.  Len, our In-House Historian and Philosopher brought me solace that day by pointing out how many countries in history have survived periods of really bad leadership. The Russians, one of Europe’s oldest cultures, have survived Communist totalitarianism as did Germany and Italy their fascist tyrannies. America will survive its currently crumbling reign of neo-fascist terror under Bush’s brand of neo-con Judeo/Christian/Zionist/Petro Herronvolk.

And, as we in America survive, we would be wise to keep disseminating the message this brilliant law scholar posted immediately after 9-11-01. America is not its leadership. We are over 300 million people of a nation whose ethnic and cultural diversity has never been rivaled in the history of Mankind. When some ignorant Islamic zealot in Pakistan, or even in Iraq, calls for the random slaughter of Americans, he’s ipso facto demonstrating his ignorance of the fact that America is the homeland of 8 to 10 million Muslims (over one third the total number of Islamics in Afghanistan).  So, one out of 33 “Americans” killed “at random” will automatically be…you guessed it…faithful followers of Mohammed.

Without further stealing of his “thunder”, I’ll print for us all here the ever-relevant words of an American scholar on what it is to be an American. We need to keep reminding the world of the fact that America is the Spartacus of international freedom. In the patchwork and, in parts, torn and tainted quilting of our mosaic history, we have certainly sewn some poor—and yes—even outrageously bad patches. But the sewing of the American Quilt is still under way. We are a work in progress, and we are still the greatest experiment in freedom any peoples in the history of the world have ever dared… and we never were, are not now, and never in the future will we ever be merely what our leaders appear to be and  do in our names.  We should never make the mistake of loving our country under the delusion that either it or we were ever…perfect.

We will endure, we will out-live, and ultimately we will renounce and rid ourselves and our American homeland of Bush and his fascist, war-mongering  bully boys and the world will again look to us and see us for what we are….which is …. Them.   Free.    

 

IN THE MEANTIME…LET’S KEEP REMINDING

THE REST OF THE WORLD…

 

 

What Is An American?
A primer.

By Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law.
September 25, 2001 9:20 a.m.

 

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper there an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So I just thought I would write to let them know what an American is, so they would know when they found one.

An American is English…or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them choose.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God-given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

An American does not have to obey the mad ravings of ignorant, ungodly cruel, old men. American men will not be fooled into giving up their lives to kill innocent people, so that these foolish old men may hold on to power. American women are free to show their beautiful faces to the world, as each of them choose.

[Note from Dusty- We must forgive the writer for the previous paragraph, as in September of 2001, no one (including skeptical me) could have foreseen what the Bushite Fascists were capable of.]

An American is free to criticize his government’s officials when they are wrong, in his or her own opinion. Then he is free to replace them, by majority vote.

Americans welcome people from all lands, all cultures, all religions, because they are not afraid. They are not afraid that their history, their religion, their beliefs, will be overrun, or forgotten. That is because they know they are free to hold to their religion, their beliefs, their history, as each of them choose.

And just as Americans welcome all, they enjoy the best that everyone has to bring, from all over the world. The best science, the best technology, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes.

Americans welcome the best, but they also welcome the least. The nation symbol of America welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.

These in fact are the people who built America. Many of them were working in the twin towers on the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo and Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.

But in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

So look around you. You may find more Americans in your land than you thought were there. One day they will rise up and overthrow the old, ignorant, tired tyrants that trouble too many lands. Then those lands too will join the community of free and prosperous nations.

And America will welcome them.

*The original print of the article is available on line at National Review Online –   http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-ferrara092501.shtml

 

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