An America of Ignorance
It never ceases to amaze me how many ignorant people there are in our society. I grew up in 1950’s and 1960’s a world of bigotry, race baiting, hatred and gender bias. Everyone could enjoy the American Dream… as long as they were white and male. Then, along came the 70’s and, with it, a whole generation that began to openly challenge the status quo. We were going to change the world. It was a rock and roll renaissance. We had great plans to fix all of the things that were wrong with society. We were going to legalize pot, find a way to get people to live in racial harmony, give women the right to work at the same job – and get the same pay – as a man. We were tired of war – especially wars that involved sending 100’s of thousands of young men off to a far-away country to fight in a war that virtually nobody in the US supported. We were going to stick it to the man. We were naïve – but we weren’t ignorant. Quite the opposite, actually.
But lately, I’ve been noticing many people who were part of that generation who have become intolerant and I’m wondering what changed them. Our great nation was borne upon the fundamental principal of inclusion. We like to say that America is the great melting pot – because, although the first settlers were primarily English merchants and middle class who came to this land in the 1600’s, the immigrants, who later settled here have always found a way to adapt to the into the existing patterns of American life – adopting the social, political and cultural patterns established by these first English settlers. Immigration continues into America at a healthy pace and, one could argue, that it is precisely that influx that has made this a great country. One would think that the mixture of new cultures, skills and ideology that comes with each new immigrant should be a strength.
But we’ve come to hate immigrants. We’ve come to hate people with ideas that are different from our own. We’ve come to despise people who speak languages other than English. If your skin isn’t white, you’re not only not trusted… but you’re not respected. And if you are anything other than Christian, you should beware – because you will be treated like a parasite in our “Land of the free and home of the brave.” We’ve become ignorant as a nation. We’ve lost track of what made us great. We’ve lost our way and we’ve lost the ideological momentum that made this country a great place.
Maybe it’s because of 9/11 or maybe it’s because we have a black president. Or maybe men feel more threatened by women today. It’s more likely, in my opinion, that it’s because there are not many more frontiers in this country. We have begun stepping on each other’s toes, competing for the same resources, applying for the same jobs. We have trouble competing as a country. We’re scared. We’ve regressed. It feels like it’s the 1950’s all over again.
There’s a bronze plaque that is mounted in the lower level of the Statue of Liberty. It contains an excerpt from a sonnet that was written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. It reads:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus was one of seven children of Moshe Lazarus and Esther Nathan, who were Sephardic Jews whose families, originally from Portugal, had been settled in New York since the colonial period. She spoke several languages, including English, German, French and Italian. Emma was an American. She wasn’t ignorant. I wonder what she would be thinking if she was alive today and saw the state of our country.