It is 100 years from Appomattox to Civil Rights... and now the SCOTUS seeks to take Civil Rights away.
12
Roger, wake up! The US is headed for Civil War 2.0
8
"From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!"
Keep hope alive and work like the devil to create the America we can be. Volunteer. Demonstrate. Vote in every election; there are no off years, only elections for different offices. America will be - if we let it.
25
Why are there only 50 states? Costa Rica? Panama? Ireland? Greece? Israel? Qatar? Bhutan? Singapore? Brunei? Botswana? The Canadian provinces? The Filipino provinces? Taiwan? Speak enough English, make enough money, have enough democracy, America can welcome you. Let's start with Puerto Rico. America, we are the world. Let's realize that.
7
America was always America for white males. It's no surprise that commentators like Patrick Buchanan tell us how how great the U.S. was in the 1940's and 1950's. When white males' voices were the only ones heard and the only ones that counted. When white males had the first place in line in employment and higher education. It was America, for them.
For the rest of us? Not so much. I became an attorney in the mid-1970's, a time when few women were entering the profession. The dean of our law school had to publicly tell our incoming class that we women had no "affirmative action" breaks, because all the men in our class thought we weren't as qualified as they were. And as an ethnic minority as well, I've had to fight for my place while whites had theirs given to them.
And I cannot believe that America will ever be what it aspires to -- at least not in my lifetime. In 2018, we have an avowed sexual predator as President. We have a racist as President who says that the KKK and neo-Nazis are very fine people. We have a mentally unhinged, xenophobic President who orders brown skinned infants to be put into cages. And we have half of this nation's citizens who cheer him on.
No, Mr. Cohen, none of us will live to see the America you describe. Many of us fought for it during the 1960's and 1970's, only to see our hard won gains lost in the past eighteen months, by the most disgusting, unfit administration in this nation's history. And it will take decades to right this ship.
48
It just goes on and on and on to the next platitude.
3
My first time reading you. Wonderful and timely. This time will pass like all others as long as the free remain free to suppress the hateful and angry that disturb us now. Humble the arrogant. Bring evil low. Teach the seduced public. Resist and practice democracy individually as I do. Write, speak, then write again. Write often and thoughtfully. We will save America from it's primitive urges through free expression. The government is theirs, freedom is still ours. Use it.
7
America Never Was, Yet Will Be?
America is a country that has mystified a past it never had and an image that is a mere fantasy but never happened.
It is a dream that never came true but was sold to countless people far away to lure them to a place that does not exist.
In reality, as seen from Europe where I grew up and from Asia where I live, America is even the wrong word as it is only the US, a tiny fraction of a continent called America.
And this US in real life is military state with a desperate people and a third world infrastructure, struggling to wake up to reality and realize that the rest of the world has woken up a long time ago and is way ahead of those that are still dreaming of white supremacy and an America that that never was what it wants to be.
Sorry to disappoint you Roger, the America you dream of is and always will be a dream only.
And you, as countless others, fell for it.
12
Americans are being called upon to affirm America in ways that they never have before. There is a great opportunity for an American triumph because of the proximity of disaster. How patriotic are today's Americans? How much have they forgotten of the true promise of the nation.
Vlad Putin consoles Trump over the tribulations imposed upon that odd couple by the 'deep state'. The deep state is, in fact, the foundation: the Declaration, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights; those that animate it are all those tens of thousands who took an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and are intent on maintaining their fidelity. And the citizenry? Who are these people out there applauding the intolerance and bigotry of Trump, who dismiss his criminality as endearing, who accept his lies as somehow the Truth beyond mere factuality and common reality. That Trump believes himself to be infallible shows his madness, this casino magnet who lost everything. That Trump's supporters subscribe to another's folly is worse than madness; it is treasonous.
9
Oh, look, an op-ed piece written about one of my favorite poems that I've re-read and quoted many times since November 2016.
"The tension in the poem derives from its absence of hatred. Hughes, despite the suffering he describes, believes in the unique potential of the United States for reinvention."
We've a nation that has never been as good as we aspire to be - or imagine ourselves to be - but we kept trying and making progress. Now we have people in power who seem to openly disdain what we aspired to be. We've never been here before, and I understand why some people just want to give up. Not me, and I’m thankful for this piece and Mr. Cohen’s optimism. I also believe this:
"This magical capacity for reinvention lies at the root of American greatness. Other nations fetishize the past, rewrite it in blood; America’s genius is the facilitation of forgetfulness."
Contrast this poem to the last lines of The Great Gatsby:
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
F. Scott - the privileged white man – almost “got it” but not quiet.
3
Langston. My favorite poet now, and as a child. An exemplar of decency, intelligence, and kindness.
What on earth would he make of where we are now?
The ignorant people, who harbor racism and hatred deep in their bones, passed down from generation to generation- and all this time they had, to leach it from themselves. And they failed. Then elected a completely incompetent president because he reflected that hate, and made them feel more comfortable expressing it. What does it matter that they don't know any minorities? That there is less diversity around them, than elsewhere?
There is no excuse for this failure, in my opinion.
It's a failure of vision.
Until I went to a majority black high school, I too knew very few African Americans.
But I knew Langston.
And that was more than enough.
8
World War I was a big mistake, and the Treaty of Versailles, which extracted too much from Germany, led to the rise of Hitler.
And then there was World War II.
After World War II the only country left standing was the United States, which had been protected by the great distances of the Atlantic and the Pacific.
And the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s... these were good years for the United States.
But somewhere along the way, things changed.
It is nice to imagine that the United States became what it was because of ideals, and the ideals didn’t hurt, but most of it was just history and geography.
7
Fingers crossed you are correct.
AGG
2
I' m reading "Other nations fetishize the past, rewrite it in blood; America’s genius is the facilitation of forgetfulness. To be unburdened of history, for many immigrants, enables the pursuit of happiness." The pursuit of happiness is not specifically American, Roger Cohen. Looking at your Trump leader, your inequality, your miserable social security, the internal violence, I beg you "Please stop this wallowing in a ridiculous chauvinism." WW I I happened a long time ago. Even America is no longer what it was. There are actually countries where life might be greater than in this USA.
8
The world really is a very unjust place where throughout history very bad things have happened to very good people. Roger says America is a great place because we can forget these things and move on. We have forgotten that we stole all the land from Native Americans and tried to exterminate them, we have forgotten how much we hated Japanese and put them in prison camps, we have forgotten the deaths in all the wars however we can not seem to move on from slavery and Jim crow, WHY?
8
American greatness? Not with widespread racism that's been camouflaged before Trump exposed it. Cell phone cameras have shown the indignities African-Americans face every day. American greatness? Not with a woman begging not to go to a hospital after getting her foot caught on a subway platform edge because she couldn't afford ambulance costs. I'm tired of people talking about American exceptionalism. Exceptional for the hatred that's come to forefront under a bad human being in the White House.
33
It is understandable to search for hope that our better angels will eventually dominate. But this is still not clear.
Langston Hughes was a remarkable and observant author. But so was Frederick Douglass. And some of his earlier writings still make us squirm:
"As I have often said before, we should not measure the negro from the heights which the white race has attained, but from the depths from which he has come. You will not find Burke, Grattan, Curran and O’Connell among the oppressed and famished poor of the famine-stricken districts of Ireland. Such men come of comfortable antecedents and sound parents."
AND
"Social equality does not necessarily follow from civil equality, and yet for the purpose of a hell black and damning prejudice, our papers still insist that the Civil Rights Bill is a Bill to establish social equality. If it is a Bill for social equality, so is the Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men have equal rights; so is the Sermon on the Mount, so is the Golden Rule, that commands us to do to others as we would that others should do to us; so is the Apostolic teaching, that of one blood God has made all nations to dwell on all the face of the earth; so is the Constitution of the United States, and so are the laws and customs of every civilized country in the world; for nowhere, outside of the United States is any man denied civil rights on account of his color."
11
Live and let live a little. Do we have to keep re-litigating the past? Are "original sins" unforgivable, no penance enough?We still have the greatest country in the world and when can we let go of all this bitterness and rage? If you hate it so much, why not move?
6
Roger, I don't know how you can wax so lyrical about a nation whose behaviour, both domestically and internationally, have been the polar opposite of what it purports to represent, from Vietnam to Iraq and Yemen.
"Pursuit of happiness" is for the rich. Slavery was banned just a few decades ago (In Iran it was banned 2,500 years earlier).
What you refer to as "America's spirit" is seen abroad as a Godzilla strategy pursued to the background of a national anthem that praises "the rocket's red flare, bombs bursting in air". The result has been 5 simultaneous U.S. created civil wars just during the past 15 years, with two million dead and 20 million displaced. And the victims of U.S. foreign policy are denied entry to the nation that destroyed their families. (Europe should send the U.S. the bill).
I would love the U.S. to become the moral leader it claims to be. The world needs leadership in the chaos. But with Dubya, Trump, Mrs. Clinton ........ ?
16
"But that idea has always been fought for — through slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Great Depression, McCarthyism, Vietnam. America healed from these lacerations."
Sure, Rog! But what all of us on the outside want to know is, "Have you learned anything?"
You keep making really bad mistakes because you refuse to adopt a system that will stop you from making really bad mistakes. The above list doesn't include Iraq 1, Afghanistan, Iraq 2 and The Great Recession - all predictable disasters based on a reasonable understanding of any of the earlier disasters on your list.
And now you have allowed Trump to be inaugurated as president and you are all just sitting there waiting for the next addition to the list of "Appalling American Mistakes" as though there is nothing you could do to stop it happening. Each of these disasters were created by Americans and they could have been prevented by Americans.
The American spirit might be better captured with the expression, "Oops! Sorry!" - except that you never do apologise. Somebody should write a piece on the Great American Motto, "My country, right or wrong!" because that seems to be the unifying attitude of Trump's base.
At least, if you are going to allow these great mistakes to happen, try to keep it at home. The Trump Trade War is going to be a Great American Mistake, but happily it will mostly impact only within the United States. Trump has plans for much worse Great Mistakes - and you are going to let it happen. "Oops!"
25
The Libyan philosopher-bishop Synesius wrote sixteen centuries ago:
Myths are stories of what never was, but always is.
I hope Roger is right about America's guiding myth or dream being eternal enough to survive the current nightmare
After the failure of Fukuyama's dreamy millenial triumphalism, some see the Trump nightmare is a final wake-up call.
13
When I glanced at this piece and saw Cohen then America Never Was but Will Be - I thought it was referring to Michael Cohen who never put America first but now that he most certainly may serve jail time has decided America will be high on his list.
Roger, thanks for writing this thoughtful piece and my apologies for having confused you with someone who doesn’t deserve to be called Cohen.
9
I support immigration, but I also support zero population or even...god forbid...a decrease in population. Here's a solution: encourage couples to have two children only. Some will have only one. Some will have none. Those numbers can be replaced by refugees seeking asylum first, then immigrants fulfilling specific needs in our society, and finally immigrants coming to better their lives (of course, that depends on whether immigrants will still want to come to America, given the direction we are going in). Nature won't abide one billion American living the "American Dream."
7
Encourage couples to have NO children and to adopt instead. Make adoption FREE.
4
America always was, and continues to be, a land of myths. From manifest destiny to meritocracy, so many people of this nation choose to live in the comfort of myth than face the fight to realize those myths. Sadly, democracy is the biggest myth of all. We were founded as a republic, ruled by a landed gentry that believed it was entitled to take the land of this nation. Today, we are rule by a corporate plutocracy and rentier class that believes it is entitled to take the wealth of this nation. Yet, we lament the lack of participation at the polls. When the public has a "statistically insignificant" impact on government policy, what democracy is there in which anyone can participate?
Yet, we persevere. Now that we face the abyss from all that our representatives allowed to be stolen from us these past four decades, we are finally awakening to the need to standup. So, we can only hope that in pulling ourselves back, we do not stop. But, instead we take that next step, and another, forward to truly realizing the myth of democracy. Then, America will be!
35
One of these freedoms we the people (used to) hold dear is freedom of speech. I understand the Obama’s are engaged in a project to tell American stories that reinforce the values enshrined in our Constitution, or something to that affect. In any case, I look forward to their entering the discussion again. It may be the hope that leads to the hard changes we need to make.
In any event, as we get further bogged down in this new and ugly muck, we are pulling back from that point of perfection on the horizon that Obama put out there in his terms. True, only hubris would allow us to think we will ever reach the points on the horizon - the vision, least of all in any one generation.
But to pull back, to regress, and let those dreams perish is patently un American. Ironically, or maybe not, it is the immigrants that till the soil around the tree of liberty. Thank you for that reminder, as well as that of the enduring viewpoint of a wise African American.
13
That's great, but speech is just hot air. I'd like to have freedom from violence and poverty. Those are freedoms worth fighting for.
4
I thank Mr. Cohen for joining us thirteen years ago. It is the ultimate compliment when someone joins us in our citizenship. I also thank him for repeating Langston Hughes' tribute to our country for its disclosure of truth and of hope.
All things wrought by man are flawed, our Country included. Yet we, as citizens, are united in our dedication to the unrealized principle of our founding, not to a monarch nor to a government. And we are dedicated to each other. Nothing else binds us; that is what makes this country exceptional.
Perhaps our present circumstances reflect how much the Jeffersonian tree of liberty needs refreshing. Wherein we, the people, steer the country back towards its ideals, wresting it back from those who would corrupt it, if that is indeed possible.
To substitute the flag, or the Congress, or the President or the Court, or the military for the actual principles of liberty set out in Philadelphia so long ago is to have become lazy and to have forgotten the country's true calling. Worship not these false gods. Too many have given their lives for the liberties we are just starting not to take for granted.
28
I live in Colorado, where we were elated that 25% of voters actually voted in our primary--and we're not different from other states. We will never be the America of our dreams unless we pay attention, think, and vote. Democracy and freedom are based on truth, trust, and full participation. It's such an illusive path, but we need to keep trying to find our way to it.
38
For those of us who always taught that America was special, it is turning out to be just like any other country , any other people. 240 years was a good run I say.
8
America will be.
Maybe.
But not by lumping together the whole past, ignoring past ups and more notably more recent downs, and resorting to 80 year old poems valid before that 80 year past but less so since.
3
the poor, natives and blacks are still under attack sir... 80 years ago and today
1
To anyone who asks me, "Can I sit at this table with you?" I reply, "Sure, you can. "
22
I love this poem. It's full of hope but it's not full of false patriotic propaganda. It's honest about the short-comings of the country. You can't fix a problem if you're unwilling to even admit that the problem exists. We need to open recognize America's 'original sin' and work to form 'a more perfect union'!
"America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!"
Register and vote everyone!!
37
I strongly disagree with Cohen's statement that "America’s genius is the facilitation of forgetfulness. It may, as he said, unburdened many immigrants in the pursuit of happiness, but for the rest of us forgetting history ignores Santayana's words "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I would not define forgetfulness as America's genius, but rather as one of its curses. It so convenient to ignore the magnitude in human sufferings caused by the early, almost exclusively white British and northern European immigrants and British forces, continued after our independence by waves of settlers backed by US Army and cavalry, ruthlessly expanding our territories from sea to shining sea, a glorious vision never experienced by the native inhabitants driven mercilessly from their lands. In parallel we enslaved Africans and forcefully brought them to our shores to sustain our ideals of enrichment and manifest destiny. After emancipation, which really has not yet been fulfilled, we extended our scorn to immigrants, brutally to Chinese and Japanese laborers, as well as Irish, Italians and central Europeans. And now to Hispanics. Yet a large fraction of us, mostly white, wrap themselves in the flag and proclaim their God-granted privilege of being the only entitled ones by reason of history and ethnic purity and ready to defend their status with violence, No Mr. Cohen, they do not know the past, yet proudly bathe in the light of their ignorance.
18
"continued after our independence by waves of settlers backed by US Army and cavalry, ruthlessly expanding our territories from sea to shining sea,"
We wouldn't have the miracle of California, Oregon or Washington if not for Manifest Destiny.
You can't have it both ways.
1
If America will one day be what its founders promised, why is the valley between what is and what will be so deep and so dark?
19
I' m glad some intelligent reader puts the question. Well done, John! Roger Cohen 's lifestyle obviously belongs tot the upper 10 percent. I understand he is happy. What about the others?
1
Mr. Cohen, you are the most poetic voice in the mainstream press today. It always does me good to read you.
9
Let’s clarify the fundamentals first.
Separation of the state and the church is perfectly legal and justified.
Separation of the faith and the state is always deadly and extremely detrimental.
Nobody should want to live in the state in which the elected officials are lacking the faith.
What is the difference between the faith and the religion?
The faith is the system of values. A religion is a mix of the faith and the ancient cultures – Jewish, Roman, Byzantine or Arabic.
That’s why the religions have the potential to be simultaneously positive and negative. They are good because of the faith-related incorporated principles but deadly because of the ancient cultures that divide the people and turn them against each other.
Without the true faith it is literally impossible to have freedom, liberty and independence.
Without the faith we cannot make distinction between right and wrong, especially when our politicians, our clergy or our intellectual/academic elite are wrong.
When everything fails you, the faith is your last line of defense.
When your government and your clergy are teaching you that it’s O.K. to ethnically cleanse some region, commit the Holocaust or exploit the slaves, it’s the faith that prevents you from acting in such a way.
All the widespread crimes against humanity are the strongest indication of the massive lack of faith…
3
I fear, Kenan, that not only is our president exactly as advertised - a man with no faith - but his self-proclaimed religious supporters are without faith as well, based on your argument that having faith means having standards.
10
"But not for all."
You can lengthen that list of who was excluded from the oh so glorious vision of the Declaration of Independence.
Not to be politically correct, and in no way to diminish the abomination that was slavery in the US, but one should at least recall that America has more than one original sin. The Indigenous population of what is now the US and the spirits of their slaughtered ancestors can think of another. America will never be a better union until this fact is at least acknowledged in public discourse and in all the tripe that gets written about American values and our founding principles.
47
You speak of "those who came first and those who came later". What about those who were already here?
36
OK - I get it.
I was raised dirt poor, and paid for my education, while working, and supported my family by working 60 hours weeks and three jobs - put my kids through college working 60 hour weeks at two jobs- and not get to work 50 hour weeks at one job.
Boy - was I privileged !!!
14
Actually, it IS a privilege to work in our country, not a right. Also, it was your choice to work that many hours instead of getting the rest you needed and being available to your wife and children when they needed you. You saying everybody should work 60 hour weeks?
2
I think you misunderstood the poem and the article.
8
Someone who is not black or Native American, may well resent being automatically labeled "oppressor".
"I was born poor," he might say. "I earned my wealth through hard work. I did not inherit it from looted Native American land or forced black American labor."
Discriminatory laws, together with brutal policing and mob violence, were used to deny Native and African Americans the same opportunity to escape poverty through hard work.
And yet, the black poet in this article considers such people as partners in the struggle to help all Americans realize their potential. To quote:
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
1
A much earlier comment noted something which many if not most of us rarely, if ever, consider.
1) - Present day African-Americans have roots which are considerably deeper than the majority of European Americans, and;
2) - The only Americans who have a greater stake in our land are the original Native Americans.
It is also telling that neither of these groups are exploitive.
Wonder if our beliefs featuring an all powerful white male god have anything to do with the way our nation is run?
21
The reinvention of America cannot begin until it overcomes its amnesia. An amnesia that permits political hucksters like Trump to galvanize the racist white supremacists with a notion that never was...that our greatness lies in the past and should be remade in that image.
Cohen is spot on in implying that the promise of equality in the Declaration was never fulfilled in the original Constitution. And although it took a Civil War to defeat slavery, the promise of equality remains an illusion as Trump's millions howl in rejection.
The painful truth is that America was not great in enacting the Indian Removal Acts of the 1830s in a massive land grab and its near genocidal aftermath. And replaced the lands taken with slaves producing cotton.
Neither were we great in taking Texas and California from the Mexicans not long after, by war and invasion. Or in taking Cuba and the Philippines because we could. Or in the days of Jim Crow, poll taxes and lynchings.
These days our horde of white supremacists insist that making us great again comes by keeping everyone out who wants in. Like the brain dead, they refuse to recognize any quantum of obligation to care for those who were brought in against their will to pick their cotton.
Perhaps we were great with WWII's Great Generation that rebuilt a destroyed world.
But it shouldn't take another war to rekindle true notions of freedom and equality in order to be finally great for the first time.
38
We, the people, are our all the only ones who can heal the terrible sickness our country has contracted. To those who aren't Americans, we ask your prayers.
10
The Native Americans were the first to experience the racism and exploitation of the righteous newcomers.
25
I llike the thought that America is built on the dignity of individuals. Trump de-humanizes people, makes them part of dreaded groups who "infest" our shores like insects or vermin. Trump tries to take away their dignity. We must see them as indiviiduals, empathize with their plight, and most importantly, recognize the dignity that drove them here and help them up along that long trip.
45
"All this may induce a sense that the American idea is lost. But that idea has always been fought for — through slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Great Depression, McCarthyism, Vietnam....."
The idea of America has been around for just a few hundred years. That's nothing in the eons of time. The dinosaurs were around for thousands of eons.
America started out with a virgin continent of rich agricultural lands, minerals and timber. Then we reinvented ourselves as an industrial giant that bestrode the earth.
The virgin continent has been developed, most industrial jobs have gone overseas, and we are left with a nation of underemployed consumerists and service people. Not to mention we are living in an epoch of climate change and overpopulation.
The means of production have changed. This is a more pleasant time to be alive, but it is reminiscent of Dickensian England when noxious pollutants, slums, and child labor abounded. Shabby was king. And fat cats were happy with the status quo.
Now we need a different social arrangement to deal with his ordeal of change as we grow into a new society. Alas, most of these necessary nostrums are labeled as socialism.
But unless we do something, America could go the way of the dinosaurs. The founding fathers did not foresee American industrialization. I am sure Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin would have mentioned heavy industry, if only to disabuse the originalists who cannot see the glaciers melting.
24
Thank you, Mr. Cohen, for reminding us of these great words and for stiffening our spines.
10
Roger - We love you and appreciate your singular voice- especially now. You always have measured and careful perspective. You are gifted with just the right thing to say. Thank you.
10
I read this poem to my teenage sons the day after Trump was elected.
I was in tears halfway through, in part because of how unjust and unfair America used to be, and in greater part because I had just found out we really hadn't changed as much as I had hoped.
It may have been the only time they've seen me cry.
36
Thank you for sharing this poem. Unfamilar to me before, it describes powerfully the hope, for so many, that I think America still is, in a dark and precarious time for our country.
16
Every day is a struggle. Every day seems worse than the day before. The bandage has been ripped off and we're no longer "pretend smiling." But the ugliness -- which was always there -- is out in the open. And perhaps we are finally exercising our citizen rights. To get angry. To stand up, speak out and push for what we can be -- or in the short term -- just to be better. A little bit each day. To have one day where we can focus on the good and not got distracted by the ugliness that resides at 1600. A brilliant column by Roger Cohen...and for the moment, a pause. Yet, a galvanizing pause to fight on -- and work hard to show each other and the world how on November 6, we can be better.
68
The history of most nations are replete with sins. Which one stand out as the "original" sin is less important then cleansing the soul with truth, reconciliation and if possible restitution. The sin of colonization was murder, theft and exploitation. Slavery was common throughout the world and a great sin everywhere it existed even if the bible never said it was. Discrimination based on race or religion or ethnicity or sexual identity is a sin not always recognized. Unlawful, unnecessary and unjust wars are sins though many nations remain proud of their victories regardless.
Cleansing history of sins is impossible but telling the truth about them can start the process of reconciliation. Restitution is necessary to complete it. It is not possible to restore the lives taken unjustly, but it is possible to return land and restore the dignity of the generations that followed.
America's sins toward indigenous people and African slaves still lack the truth and restitution that is necessary to finally bring reconciliation.
13
This is a lovely and uplifting reflection on a wonderful Langston Hughes poem I have always loved. Thank you.
11
I appreciate that Roger, with his usual eloquence and exquisite insight, places our current situation in the context of 'slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Great Depression, McCarthyism, Vietnam'. That is to say, America as we knew it, is facing an existential crisis. This is not just a period during which we find ourselves under incompetent leadership. This is a period which is seeing our leadership, such as it is, attempting to undermine everything which made America what it was. This is a country which drew my immigrant family to its shores, to imbibe a freedom the likes of which it had never known. Were my parents around today, I'm certain they would have been repelled by what they would have seen, and would have been reminded of the brutality they'd fled.
America, come to your senses. This is not some passing phase. This the beginning of a transformation that cannot have a good end.
48
We white people who are alarmed, feeling powerless and growing hopeless can learn from and find inspiration and hope from black Americans who were on the front lines of the civil rights movement, who also carried with them the stories of their ancestors who were slaves. We can also learn from and find hope in the stories of the labor movement and the environmental movement and the women's movement. We have overcome in the past to make a more perfect union and we can overcome again.
28
T. S. Eliot wrote "we had the experience, but missed the meaning." He captured the human spirit without intention. July 4 is a perfect time to be reminded of Langston Hughes. This experience lost deserves rekindling. Thanks Mr. Cohen for taking the time to share the thoughts.
24
Absolutely amazing piece! It seems as though we are lost in a dark shadow of inequality and unrest right now("truth is under attack. law is under attack. press is under attack"), but this piece shed some light into the darkness. And it is quite amazing what we can do with just a flutter of hope. Thank you.
16
Don't want me to rain on your parade?
• America Never Was, Yet Will Be
What? "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." ~ OSCAR WILDE
• Other nations fetishize the past, rewrite it in blood; America’s genius is the facilitation of forgetfulness.
“Thoughtlessness is the essence of Totalitarianism.”
~ HANNAH ARENDT
The U.S.A.'s is mindlessness, amnesia, ignorance of the historical past [New Marist Poll Asks Americans About History Of Independence Day
THE NEW YORK TIMES: July 1, 2011
25 percent of Americans don’t know from which country we declared our independence.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/07/03/new-poll-asks-americans-about-his...].
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." ~ GEORGE SANTAYANA
Its "facilitation" is that of Denial, its "genius" is Hubris, its "fetish", Power, Hegemony.
“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”
~ EDWARD ABBEY
27
Mr. Cohen,
Thank you!
I have children and grandchildren who will continue to shape this country for the better after I'm gone. I have so much hope!
They will make space for all voices, power will be shared in a more egalitarian way, and democratic ideals will prevail.
My father didn't fight through the hedges of Normandy in the summer 1944 or the forests of the Ardennes in the winter of 1945 for our nation to come to this.
Vote! Vote! Vote!
93
The United States underwent a right wing coup in 2016. The electoral farce was based on Republican gerrymandering and systematic voter suppression combined with Russian hacking. We have become a Banana Republic controlled by the ultra-right wing owners of the Republican Party with the egomaniac Trump at the helm.
The voter base that gave the illusion of an electoral of victory for the Republican Party is racist, is bigoted, white nationalist, is steeped in religious fundamentalist hypocrisy. However, they are a true minority of Americans eligible to vote.
We can hold hands and sing Kumbaya, and We Shall Overcome. But the only way out of our descent into a dark Trumpian abyss is to get out the vote. Take to the streets and protest peacefully if needed, but America must wake up. We no longer can describe our country in the idealistic terms we learned in grammar school. That privilege was stolen from us by a greedy ultra-right wing oligarchy and we must fight back with vigor..or all is lost forever.
171
Mr. Cohen, you chose to live in America; Langston Hughes did not. Your good fortune was built on the misfortune of others.
13
Cohen characterizes our era as "this time of tribal smallness". His implication is that we should defeat this pernicious tribal smallness to restore some more benign form of American grandiosity -- not the glitzy fake grandiosity of Trump but something more elegant and traditional like "leader of the free world." Great power, but informed by idealism.
But American idealism is dead. I remember the civil rights movement as shaped by King. That was idealism. So was, to a lesser extent, Kennedy's appeal to seek out "what you can do for your country" and initiatives such as the Peace Corps, which had far more beneficial effect on the minds of its youthful volunteers than on the countries receiving the aid.
We have had no credible sense of national purpose since our disastrous loss of innocence in the Vietnam War. None. So how can we Americans expect to extend idealistic leadership to the world when our hearts are still so dry and empty? At best we are presently capable of offering a superior pathway for actualizing personal greed.
Second, maybe our project is not to look backward for romantic national greatness that never quite existed so much as to figure out how best to move forward into the unknown. Maybe the task is to convert the violent darkness of our inherited northern European tribalism into something more nurturing and humble. Right in our own backyards native cultures such as the Pueblo and Hopi offer healthy tribal values worthy of emulation. Let's look there.
24
thank you for this much-needed reminder that there have been, and continue to be, wise hope-filled poets who inspire us to value humanity and pursue the common good....
19
The poem to which Mr. Cohen refers is amazing, and I encourage everyone to read it in its entirety. I just wish I shared his optimism as to the future of this country.
21
Except Trump career has flourished on hatred, with love the burden he finds to great to bear. But somehow you haven't noticed this? Quoting Martin Luther King in this context is obscene.
7
All people, all countries, are works in progress. We can choose to dwell on the wrongs and indignities of the past, spilling over into the present as embodied by the Trump administration. Or we can exalt the strain of optimism, caring and doing right that has always been a part of our experiment. I vow that for goodness to triumph, it needs darkness to push against. If it is gaining force today, we can thank Trump and his crowd for giving us a renewed determination to make a reality of the deep truth in Langston Hughes' words.
14
That pursuit of happiness, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence in 1776, was also denied to women--half the population. They were not citizens but sex slaves. Spousal rape would not become a crime in America until the 1970s. This, also, was America’s “original sin.” When men of color and all women unite in solidarity to redeem the past, it will be a force to be reckoned with, indeed. #MeToo
17
And add in those of us white men who have hearts and souls and bear witness to what you see and have experienced and try to use our privilege to change.
14
"Moral depravity seeps from on high in a viscous torrent that infects everything and is hard to cleanse from the skin."
That "viscous torrent" rushes at us with a relentlessness, velocity, and ferocity that makes the Deepwater Horizon explosion look like an oil leak from a car engine.
There's no where to hide from it, and no mechanism to stop it or repair it's continuous destruction to our psyche and our Democracy.
We're being attacked from within and half of us are gleefully cheering on our own destruction, as if it's just another TV show and "regular" programming will resume soon after this show gets cancelled.
I can't say that I didn't see every bit of this coming, because I did.
I understood what this man was capable of before he was elected, and the day after the election when he ordered his communication flunky to lie about the size of the inauguration crowd I got a cold chill up my spine.
We elected a man who mocks disabled people, and is proud of it.
89
And his opponent chose several times, to mock the very people on whom she depended upon to get her elected.
Neither of the two were particularly appealing, if not being particularly appalling.
Trump is delivering on his promises, something fairly unique in today's political world.
5
You and we must not give in to despair. Practice hope and stop with the 4 paragraphs of doom. Our mission is to uphold each other and our values -- not to recite despair. If you cannot control what you think, at least control what you say to those of us who plan to strive to overcome this and to fight despair.
6
You're right, I should be more positive.
I understand the need for "cheerleaders", we have a lot of those here, I'm just not wired that way.
This administration is beyond evil, it has tangible, sinister intent, all the levers of power and it's hard for me to synthesize a positive response in the face of that.
I've never been one of these "revolution" types like Bernie Sanders, spinning off pie in the sky. I've always been a practical, solid center left guy on most issues.
But "Hope" isn't going to get this done, we tried that already. Obviously there was some significant tissue rejection that came along with that.
My best advice is the simplest, and it was President Obama's, too.
Vote.
2
Vote! Vote! Vote!
35
More importantly -- Have acceptable candidates to vote for !!
Come on, Democrats, come up with somene who can win on the national stage.
11
Too late. The Democrats have already self destructed with the help of Mad Max and Nancy.
This op-ed piece, as well, as most of the letters below, could have been written by Howard Zinn or Naom Chomsky or any of those "progressives" who mainline on hatred of the United States. For the Times and its readers, America is not the country that in a few hundred years went from a tiny group of colonies to the richest, most powerful, most culturally dominant country in the world; it is the land of slavery, oppression, greed, white supremacy, racism, and exploitation—a true horror. Do you really think this is a message that resonates among the people of this country?
6
Bob,
Over 55% of 'Merican's believe in angles.
Only 39% believe in evolution.
36% Americans believe in anthropogenic global warming.
Truth is America is the land of slavery, oppression, greed, white supremacy, racism, and exploitation—a true horror.
That was our history.
Do we really think this is the message that resonates among the people of this country?!
No.
Many people don't know their history and obviously spin it to suit their ideals.
Just like Bush delivered Freedumb to Iran, and Trickle Down economy works.
America believes its ignorance is equal to learning.
6
Why the hate for the observation that the American Dream is not readily available for all Americans?
Can we not aspire to be better?
Can we not hold the Dream as true for some, but aspire that it be a Dream available for more? Do you deny the history of slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings and other forms of enforcement of bigotry and racism?
We are not all or nothing as a nation. There are so many wonderful things about America. Most of the liberals I know would agree with that. But to then say that it's hateful to acknowledge that there is much that could be better, is just plain wrong. Blind patriotism that insists that all is OK is ultimately more damaging to our nation than anything you appear to fear.
We are great, but not perfect...
Take off your blinders, please
I love my country.
8
Bob,
Hatred of the U.S. is not the vibe I get from this op-ed or Hughes' poem. Both celebrate America's spirit and its almost impossible quest to fulfill its promises. Back when I was a child in school, all our nation's faults were glossed over. But we're grownups now, and the truth is so much more complicated and sad and beautiful. We fail miserably, again and again, because our goals are so high. But we keep trying.
32
So beautifully and thoughtfully written without hate or resentment expresses our current fears and frustration. The country, especially the populace that can clearly see what is happening to the tenets of our democracy, should emblazon their homes, communications, and speeches with the words of the poem.
5
America's best days are over. Too much hate has risen above the most recent past of community. All led by a TV entertainer and failed businessman who latched onto fear in the middle class over a real loss of opportunity in the US as Republicans (and some Democrats) sold out our country from beneath them.
19
The best days are only over if we surrender. Out of great evil, great good can arise, if we decide it will arise. We can't be complacent, we can't wait for "somebody else" to do it, we have to say that we will not let our country descend into hatred, we will show what it is to care about our fellow Americans, and we are stronger than our fears, and stronger than the small people who want to steal our country to line their own pockets.
8
Someone once asked me, after I came to this country, "is it as free where you came from as it is here?". I thought "what sort of question is that?". All western democracies have things people complain about but few people view them as restrictions on their freedom.
For too many people in the US "freedom" has come to mean my freedom (which is more important than yours). Back in the 18th century everyone (including the authors of the constitution) knew what freedom of speech and freedom of religion meant. Now they're used to justify all sorts of things
that go against the general concept of "freedom".
You're only as free as the person you persecute...
52
I found these words about Pruitt that apply to the whole Trumpian enterprise: his kleptocrats, enablers, dupes, and those who love to hate:
"He [Pruitt] has turned the agency into an ethics and regulatory Superfund site that will take years to clean up."
Broadening the context, here's the gist:
Trump has turned the US into an ethics and anti-humane Superfund site that will be well night impossible to clean up.
21
I wish that I shared you optimism but the American Dream has been replaced by the Nightmare in the White House.
19
Roger, great positive sentiments. But the unbridled anger that has brought America to this point will be hard to extinguish if it is even possible.
And now that it is being projected upon the world, the moral high place America has always tried to hold has now been lost for at least a generation. Europe, China, Hispanic America have been slapped and denigrated. Our repudiation of science and unwillingness to confront climate change is appalling,
What will motivate them to see us in a positive way again? Perhaps a radical change in government, but that also is not assured.
I wish I could feel the positivity of the future as you do in this piece, but I find it increasingly hard every day.
8
If the eyes are the opening to the soul for a person what is the prism for viewing the soul of a country?
If America was founded on original sins like slavery, what are the values that determine it's character after more than 200 years of history?
When a majority of electoral votes today elects a debased president like Trump what does that say about the morals of America's citizens?
Trump's election may very well be a reality check on a country that had an inflated opinion of itself!
19
Mr. Cohen gets it. So did Langston Hughes.
I always thought these ideals were the real core of why the US was "exceptional." It was as if a gift was dumped in our lap! A vast country, needful of many hands (and still needful)!
And we grasped that historical moment, even if it also came with moral stains we should not forget. But we grasped that moment.
I am startled, confused, and in no small measure afraid, that too many people think the "No Vacancy" sign needs to be put up, and with favored and unfavored potential new residents.
What an ugly perversion of what was our redeeming quality. And I do not thinking I am exaggerating when I say, this is what American Fascism looks like.
23
Inspiring or delusional?
Mr. Cohen Writes:
“But that idea has always been fought for — through slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Great Depression, McCarthyism, Vietnam. America healed from these lacerations. It cohered: E pluribus unum.”
Today, it doesn’t look to me like America healed from those lacerations. Not at all. Many Trump supporters appear to be still fighting the civil war, and he encourages them. The great advances in civil rights now look ever more like a delusion rather than reality. Vietnam, easy, justrewrite the history and declareit a victory. . . As to mccarthyism, Trump’s cozying up to the brytal putin almost makes that long ago deplorable sound prescient.
8
Beautiful words to inspire us to fight a fight that must be fought.
Trump has shown us an ugly America.
Hughes was a better man than Trump ever was or could hope to be, and his poem should be required reading for all Republicans, along with "The Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck, "The True Believer" by Hoffer, and "War is a Racket" by Smedley-Butler.
23
and why not, vesuviano, add kozol's caution to the screenbound, "amusing ourselves to death" and , for a summer night's film, chayevesky's foretelling of media news fakery, "network."
as for ugliness, never were we more so that when the "pioneers"
exterminated the native tribes, but more recently, at home we had HUAC, blacklisting, ruining lives with innuendo, (one of their confidential informants, btw, was one ronald reagan who, as president of the screen actors guild, was the best government mole ever).
abroad, the viet nam liars sowed seeds that are still poisoning the republic.
the trump dumpers (no vote for him here) are either too young to recall or are unaware of the harm done.
better to get our act together to offer better things otherwise, after he's gone, we'll stuck in hi!!aryland, looking for someone else to blame.
Ironic, isn't it that so many then we're willing..and now.. to criticize Reagan's anti-Communist views, expressed during a time when there was a serious threat to our national security from the Soviet...Russian...Empire, and are now being highly critical of Donald Trump and his administration being willing even just Talk to a Russian leader?
Isn't the liberal angst..consist theory actually, the same image as the McCarthy era "Communist" witch Hunt with unfounded accusations, fake stories, conclusion jumping, and flat-out fantasy?
The certainly have similar points of measure!
2
There is a saying in the global business community: "Never bet against the U.S."
In forty years in business, I have never met anyone who disagreed.
Maybe business people, oh, the horror! know something that poets know ...
7
What a beautifully written article. It gives one a ray of hope while this cesspool thrust itself upon us. Let's hope that the saying, "It's always darkest before the dawn," has some credence during today's trials. You've got to believe that the tables will turn. Let's just hope it's sooner than later.
23
What do you think we are? Where do you think we are going? How much do you think things will change?
For a white person you will get one set of answers. For people of color you will get an entirely different set of answers. The more things change the more they stay the same. We make changes on paper and in law but what actually happens in the real world...gerrymandering, voter suppression, bigotry, intolerance, racism, misogyny, etc.etc.etc is the real story. You can paint all the beautiful pictures you want and you can talk about mom, apple pie, eagles, flags, god, guns, guts, and the "American" way but reality is a whole other reality.
7
reality is a whole other (thing).
2
I teach elementary students. I just might hang this poem up in my room.
14
Scott Franklin wrote: “I teach elementary students. I just might hang this poem up in my room”.
I would too were I still in the classroom. Make sure every parent sees it Mr Frankin, on teacher parent night. Perhaps followed by a showing of the Mr Rogers film and lesson on decency documentary featured elsewhere on this op-ed page.
3
I routinely post it on my Facebook page, and certainly always on the 4th of July.
It captures beautifully the perplexing nature of our nation.
So aspirational and yet so filled with shortcomings, along with our greatness. It is, in so many ways, the human story, even as the tragedy of our treatment of people of color and women is a significant stain.
1
This country was built on the backs of slaves and imported workers. Genocide was a national policy. Racism is still rampant. We neglect the middle class and poor while adopting policies that benefit the rich. Truly exceptional.
13
The USA is not exceptional in it’s terrible treatment of the “other” and of the environment. Do you know of any major society in world history that didn’t practice those faults that you list? But no country on the planet today has successfully integrated so many “others” as we have. We have the most multicultural society on the planet by a long shot. We recently elected an Afro-American president. That’s awesome! What existing country would you hold up as an example of what we ought to be?
We need to all do everything we can to get everyone possible out to vote.
Immigration, Integration, Diversity .. I get it. But the Democrat's problem is they conflate the nostalgic, turn of the century immigration of their grandparents with the chaos occurring at the border. What's happening at our border is not immigration- it's pandemonium. These "asylum seekers" spend thousand of dollars to be smuggled across our border- Illegally. Most of these "asylum seekers" already have relatives residing here- they are part of the endless chain of illegal immigration. Many are not victims of domestic abuse, they are not political refugees, they are not fleeing "gang violence" -- They are scamming and gaming our system so they can enter and work here under false pretenses. I say, let them in- let them all in- but e-verify, DNA profile, issue ID cards and start a collective tax system so they start paying back what they take. As it is now- 60% of illegal labor earned revenue is sent back to Mexico- where the Mexican government makes millions in transfer fees. That money should be put in U.S. coffers to pay for their children's public education and offset healthcare costs. My patience and good nature has come to an end- either pay up or get out.
11
I am reminded that the "golden doors" of the?he past are in reference to the orderly, legal immigration of people's of all classes through the entry doors of Ellis Island.
The southern border of our nation has umerous "golden doors" tthrough which those believing in the rule of law enter. There thousand of miles of our border over which those who don't believe in the rule of law or a "golden door"through which they enter.
The cries when the gate-jumpers get caught and have to accept the consequences..both from themselves and their legion of enablers...are inappropriate at best.
4
Add, please, if they don't take steps towards citizenship within four years, send them home.
Immigrants who want to be Aericans are always welcome, even though the illegal ones need to go to the back of a line or to separate line that has its own limits.
Our current state rewards illegality and system gaming. And while America will be able to survive the chaos of our current system, a heavy penalty is being assessed to those who have taken the legal route and patiently waited for their turn to come.
Let me ask the obvious question...Which of the two would buoy prefer to be a fellowcscitizen if you only could take one?
4
tell us about your ancestor......
I would like to be a teacher, but it’s so hard to find any student in this world.
If you want to lose a friend, just tell him or her the truth. The truthfulness will make you the loneliest person in the universe.
If you’ve never heard of me, that’s because I’ve been telling you the truth. That’s unforgivable sin in this world.
It does not matter if the truth is in your best interest or whether it might protect your very lives, families or properties. As the humans we cannot tame our hubris, ego and conceit.
The faith is not about God, Christ, Mohammed, Almighty or Allah. It is the training manual how to subdue yourself and own foolishness.
Those believing that science or education could help them in achieving such a goal should finally open their eyes. How are you doing? Can you even understand who is lying to you? Are you sure? Have they managed to impose their collective identity upon you, whatever it was – ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or partisanship?
That’s exactly how they get you hooked up on their agenda and how you lose your freedom, liberty or independence…
4
America is a myth, with all the advantages and disadvantages pertaining thereto.
Myth inspire. The also obscure reality.
---
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/08/07/polls-us-greatest-thre...
6
Here's the reality of our country:
* Forged in bloodshed over empire, religion, power and money.
* Expanded via ethnic cleansing as we "illegal" immigrants decimated the native Americans.
* Became economically powerful on the backs of slaves.
* Conduct perpetual war around the globe (primarily by attacking little countries that can't fight back) in order to take their stuff, while calling it things like Shock and Awe (Ye Gods!).
* Spend outrageous amounts of our wealth maintaining a bloated, unnecessary military rather than providing for the basic needs of our citizens.
* Allow the Needy and Greedy plutocrats and corporations to amass ever greater shares of our national wealth on the absurd theory that they, out of the goodness of their cold, wee hearts, would share some with the hoi polloi.
* Treat our magnificent public lands - possible the very best thing about our nation - like sewers for the profit of those aforementioned Needy and Greedy.
* Hand the controls of this sinking ship to The Lowest Possible Common Denominator of Humankind and continue to give him the support of half the country.
* Have the gall to wave around the wonderful, ignored words in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights like they mean something other than theory.
You might not like this analysis - I surely do not - but the reality is what the reality is.
28
Do you mean that the Feds should never have allowed Chicago to expand?
Absurd, I know...But that's where your argument can take you.
If the White House stands for White Males then how does Roger Cohen explain how Barack Obama, a person of color, became our 44th president??
9
If you really don't understand how that's possible you'll need to do some more research on the U.S. electoral system and how votes were cast for Obama...both times.
On the other hand, it's senseless to think just because he was twice elected that this country is free of bigotry and prejudice, and one look at who's in the White House now readily testifies to that.
5
Sarah Palin
1
Sharon never said that the US was free of bigotry.
You need to reread what she wrote for what SHE said, not what you think she said!
During these politically volatile times, refugees have been the target of the current administration. I wrote this song in the hope of changing some hearts and minds. It's called Esperanza's Dream.
https://youtu.be/ZCYdbJPo180
1
amen.
1
The phony expression "thoughts and prayers" out of the mouths of such as Trump are disgusting. They PREY on our nation.
To pray FOR our nation, VOTE!
4
Beautiful piece, but I wonder over the omission of the taking of Indigenous lands on which to build this dream, without the recognition of the colonialism at its root. I think that is the original sin, but it may not be fully recognized in the US until the horror of the sin of slavery is fully addressed.
4
It is a skazki. A land which never was, but yet must be.
1
Trump is but the next step after decades of Republican racist practices. President Obama courageously bore the heavy burden of being the first black president in America, a country whose politics still display clearly than ever the scars of the Civil War. The GOP has relentlessly pursued racial bias with its Southern Strategy dating back to Richard Nixon.
Trump built his career on Birtherism, racial hatred personified. Race was a key factor when the GOP enacted total obstructionism with a blood oath the day President Obama was elected to block every move he would try to make. Obama's relationship with the Republican opposition was made crystal clear when he gave a televised speech in 2009 to a joint session of Congress and Joe Wilson, (R) from the South Carolina called out in a loud voice “You lie!!”. No other President of the United States ever had to deal with such disrespect and overt hatred. Republican racism created Trump..he is them.
It will take a public awakening similar to what we experienced during the Civil Rights and Vietnam War Eras. The corrupt electoral processes that allowed Trump to occupy the Oval Office demand a massive voter response against the minority who have been empowered by corrupt GOP gerrymandering and systematic voter suppression. We also may never know exactly how much help the Russians gave to Trump and the GOP.
Be optimistic, yes..but: Protest, Organize, and Get Out the Vote. Never Again!
16
No one ever really addresses the fact that the Russians and GOP are still obstructing our country and our elections and nothing is being done about it. I too have high hopes on helping to get out the vote but what about the corrupting of our elections?
1
Right on!
Langston Hughes, like Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin, was doubly bedeviled by his intellectual brilliance by being black and gay while being brave.
Color aka race is a malign American white supremacist socioeconomic political historical myth meant to morally and legally justify black African enslavement and separate and unequal black African Jim Crow.
Color is related to the production of Vitamin D and protecting genes from damaging mutations. There is only one multicolored multiethnic multifaith multi -national origin evolutionary fit biological DNA genetic human race species that began in Africa 300, 000 years ago.
7
"America’s genius is the facilitation of forgetfulness. To be unburdened of history, for many immigrants, (and nearly all born-citizens) enables the pursuit of happiness.
here, you and barak obama exemplify...you, quoted above on "forgetfulness" and barak who has slavery as "America’s “original sin.”
america's "original sin," so deeply denied, even today as its survivors are still kept on "reservations," is genocide.
as evil as slavery is, the near total extermination of native tribes (how arrogant is calling them "native americans"?!) is at the root of our birth as a nation and the root of the regard for another race as "inferior" that made slavery easier on the conscience of the traffickers and their customers.
4
If there is an "original sin" in our founding, it is probably the idealistic dream of the founders who could not see has simple concepts could become weapons wielded by any side.
Both the White and the Tory and the Democrat and the Republican have chosen to use or ignore our Constitutional rights when political advantage can be gained. It is a cynical approach, but unfortunately a useful one when all one cares about is political gain and the sustenance of political power and riches.
And man being a political animal, cynicism triumphs over honor and integrity most of the time!
Thanks for this uplifting and insightful piece.
3
This is really beautiful. Thank you.
5
The current state of America does not include anyone who is not rich, white, or male. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding him/herself. Obama was correct, designating African American slaves as 3/5 of a person was our original sin. We compounded it when we let the attitudes and ethics around slavery continue after the end of the Civil War. We may not have called the Jim Crow era apartheid but it was. And it continues today. Our current government at its highest levels is not a reflection of America. Sad to say we are witnessing the failure of government of, by and for the people. We're letting it drown by voting in people who give voice to our deepest fears, who don't want things to change for the better, who want us to believe that one person's gain is our loss.
It's our loss when we consider another person inferior to us because of his/her skin color, gender, religion, economic status, sexual preference. It's our loss when we decide that some Americans aren't worth caring about. It's a loss when we elect unqualified and cruel people into high office.
16
The trajectory of history is filled with peaks and valleys. Some are good and some are bad. In the end, we hope that the overall, trend is upward. But Trump has created one of the lowest valleys we have seen for Decades. This will pull down on the overall trend and it is likely to take years to pull out of this Trump drop to see another peak. And the damage continues.
4
Mr. Cohen you are such a beautiful writer, and this is such a beautiful and much-needed column. I have never read Langston Hughes' poetry and am eager now to discover it. Thank you.
15
Thoughtful column that in a way answers the oft asked question "Is this who we are?" or "we're better than this." There's the implication that the cruelty and bigotry that we're witnessing is not the real America. Yet it is and has been, and Mr. Cohen's point is that we have to constantly fight to enable our better angels. Despite the past, we can be better than this.
17
FDR, fundamentally an optimist, spoke about the upward trajectory of history. It's so tempting to believe that. But for someone like myself, having come into adulthood in the late-60s and early-70s, the 21st Century sure doesn't provide much evidence in support of that assertion.
5
Thank you for sharing Hughes’s poem with us. I’ve been retracing the course of my family’s immigration here—my dad’s ancestors who came to New Amsterdam in the first years of colonization, my mother’s, who fled Ireland before and after the potato famine, who escaped from the dark heart of England’s industrial serfdom and the chaos of Germany’s birth pangs. And my daughter, whose immigration by adoption was so much gentler than that of the hundreds of families fleeing the Northern Triangle today.
"The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again."
Our country is made stronger by every additional strand, every nation, every group, whether distained or prized, educated or striving; so it was in the past and is now.
14
Love your column today. I've been thinking that our country has been in the midst of the longest civil war the same one from the 1800's --- but our country will never rest: and that is the hope and the despair of it. But if we continue to strive to make it better, make all people equal, harness science and medicine - save our earth - forging new frontiers and bettering old ones --- Then we have a chance. Not having to constantly win to feel he is a winner, like our President. Like in so many areas, it is the journey, the process, that makes us strong.
11
Nice
A very nice column, wonderful poem, but I am so tired of being left behind in all these aspirations, I am not mentioned, I am a woman.
18
Mr. Cohen is right - America will be uplifting once more.
I've swung from love and admiration to love and despair in my American journey, one that has not been dissimilar to Mr. Cohen's.
Despite all the awfulness of the Trump era, I'm back to love and admiration. Trump will pass; Trumpism is an aberration , the fading echo of our original sin. We are a liberal and progressive nation, and while our progress towards becoming a better union suffers setbacks, its direction is set.
Even in these horrible times, we are becoming more tolerant and inclusive. The beliefs and prejudices of nasty-America are daily confronted, reported and condemned. The prejudice we silently tolerated a generation ago we now force to retreat. Not even the nasty, aging man in the White House can divert that progressive current.
14
I fear your optimism will allow complacency rather than activism. We really need to fight to win our values, freedom and connection to our traditional allies back. I fear that Mueller is going way too slow and it will be too late by the time he completes his investigation.
1
Thank you, Mr. Cohen, for putting these thoughts into words for those of us who struggle to articulate what it is we are hoping to be as a nation. Bracing as well as encouraging to read .
A link below to another piece I appreciated this holiday. (From the Christian community, the Bruderhof. I am told that they try to actually live the teachings of Christ) :
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/social-justice/a-prayer-for-the...
4
Roger, I sincerely thank you. I was just starting to indulge in my worst habit, a solo pity party. The poem is gorgeous, the words profound, the spirit magnificent and inspiring. Sometimes, we forget just how lucky we are, "just" from being born here. A delayed but heartfelt " Welcome to America ". I'm glad you're here.
34
Our group decided not to talk about anything pertaining to our government. This was a sad July 4th.
10
Among the many things that have changed since 1935, one is our attitude towards struggle. Today, it is rare to hear the courage of Langston Hughes, who wrote "Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—The steel of freedom does not stain." Hughes had dignity and let the ugly words of detractors define them, not him. Nowadays, even the hint of an "ugly name" is cause for outrage, for wallowing in victimhood, for demanding punishment and reparations. For the woke populace in today's Age of Outrage, the steel of freedom has become a delicate fabric, easily stained and torn, spat upon and denigrated.
16
The outrage is part of the "defining" of the person saying the words.
You are appear too concerned about the abuser and to denigrative of the abused. Part of having "freedom" is the ability to rise up and demand better treaetment and to call those who would harm and debase out for who and what they are. It doesn't make us "delicate flowers" to demand fair treatment.
It isn't noble or wonderful to suffer in silence.
4
Thank you, Roger. And, above all, thank you, Langston.
11
Roger, in Trump's Republican Party , the mantra for a better America is purging.
First they want to purge taxes for their rich donors and big businesses.
Next they want to purge all the Blacks, Latinos,Asians and all other minority people we can think of including the Indians whose land our settlers stole from.
So this poem from 1935 written by a Black poet called Langston Hughes that you quoted here is worthy of praise in historically lowest time of our life as per as diversity is concerned only because of a total racist dictator in the making called Donald J. Trump.
Trump rewrote the constitution as per his wishes and still refuses to follow the norms or the contents of the Bill of Rights that our founders inserted in the books in gold letters on September 17,1787.
So even as we celebrate fourth of July this year like every years since our independence in 1776, the words of Mr. Hughes still resonate in many of the homes of Black and minority families with the question in their mind that most of the children ask their parents while on a long distance drive, "Are we there yet ?"
And the answer that we tell our children while driving to reach our destination is the same answer that White America tells Black Americans and other citizens like them , "Not there yet."
With Trump sitting in the White House, Black Americans will never receive their "40 acres and a mule" that was promised to them under "reconstruction" by General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16,1865.
5
America was never America for me...thus I take a knee.
25
The original sin was not slavery it was the destruction of the Native American nations and their dispossession in the name of liberty. How odd that this truth is so often glossed over.
17
Two sins committed simultaneously. And perhaps add in our seizing much of America from Mexico, that counts as a bit of one as well, but we're supposed to be angry that so many of our cities and states have Spanish names. Lots of thinking our nation needs to do.
3
No, slavery in US was in full flower before the Native American genocide began in earnest (1850s?); but I have no problem seeing both as America's original sins, and we shouldn't gloss over either one.
4
Read some early American history. The genocide began when the first European set foot on this continent. It did not begin with the white settlement of the West—it began on the eastern shores.
Too bad Trump has never read Langston Hughes..
(Or any other poetry, for that matter)
8
Beautiful. Thank you
5
America was formed by wealthy colonists tired of being under the economic boot of the wealthy British. That puts the lie to all this patriotic folderol. Nationalism is the opiate of the masses. Look around the world and you will see the "Golden Rule" (he who has the gold makes the rules) at work!
2
I understand the desire to celebrate these ideals but, let's face it, it's no better than a desire for wish fulfilment... and that makes it fundamentally dishonest. There's simply too much evidence of a failed democratic process; the way capitalism and big money is at war with democracy; the way freedom is used to bully equality and the fracture of fratérnité. Let's stop lying to ourselves and realising there is a war going on and that the good people look like losing.
Can America become a fascistic state and a threat to world peace? Sure it can....
8
Americans, particularly white Americans, have been lying to themselves for nearly 250 years. I have my doubts that we will ever be what we seem to believe we are--a shining city on a hill. Yeah, right. The 1% think this is a really great place.
14
Very inspiring indeed.
Too bad the MAGA criters use the same words to describe a very different America.
7
Most Black Americans have no illusion about this country, or its history, or what it means to be American, simply because they've had to fight so long for the recognition and inalienable rights granted every U.S. citizen for so long.
Anyone familiar with the Dred Scott case knows that simply being born as a Black person in America doesn't necessarily mean you're an American... or free.
Having grown up with the poetry of Langston Hughes in my household, I have a favourite one of my own, which also elucidates the problem and hope of the 'American idea' while being Black in America at the same time:
"What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore --
and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat
Or crust and sugar over --
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?"
The dilemma Mr. Hughes was confronting then, continues to linger on today.
And if this current administration has taught us anything about America -- it's that this country still has a long way to go in attaining its own goals.
29
Langston Hughes my favorite black poet.
4
Please, let’s stop talking about the personalities.
Focus on the principles!
The principles rule this world because they are eternal thus without any term limitation or re-electability.
Those obsessing about any politician lack both the principles and personality…
Never let the others bring you down to their level. If it happens, you did it to yourself because it was exclusively your choice and your mistake.
If the others are hateful, you cannot defeat them by being hateful but only by loving them. If you are hateful too, you just imitate and de facto join them.
The question is whether you can love Donald Trump.
If you can’t, you aren’t better than him…
Only if you love him you can learn how to change and improve him…
1
I rarely agree with yoou, sir, but this time you have my full agreement.
The solutions will never be found in hatred or invective. They will be found in the hard work that or constitutional democracy and our federal republic require...civil debates and reasoned compromises.
Progress towards full freedom and equality under any form of governance is both incremental and with the consent of the governed.
Elections in a democratic society hand the tools of power to the winner(s). If the losers want something different, democracy rquises that it be achieved at the ballot box.
4
A little too Pollyanna for me!
4
Mr. Cohen has highlighted the exact reason why Democrats lost in 2016. Aside from "my turn," the arch-narrative of the campaign was "leave good enough alone." The message clearly didn't resonate. Not with Langston Hughes' poem and certainly not with voters.
"From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives"
We don't need to consider racism and citizenry singularly in this line. This speaks to everything that is wrong with America today. This was the campaign denied to Americans in 2016. We now experience Trump as result.
6
Given the threat that Trump represents to what I believe to be the America ideal, I have found myself reflecting on the current brand of false patriotism - the kind that Hughes calls crowned with no false patriotic wreath.
These Patriots stand for the anthem, worship all things military and all things red white and blue but did not heed the lesson of our founders. The founders were revolutionaries who refused subservience to the Crown - they created our founding documents so that the Nation would be subservient to it's people. Our Government is in place to serve, not to rule. This lesson has been lost in the search for demagogic power.
A true American patriot could never utter those famous words: My Country Right or Wrong - never! We have gone way off of course and the taking back of our Nation needs to be done every day by resisting and calling out the regressive forces that seek to homogenize and quite all dissent.
We Shall Overcome!
15
Are you believer, Mr Bow, that the winner of our elections is entitled to govern with the consensus of the Congress and the oversight of the courts?
2
For those who have never done so, I strongly recommend a visit to the nearest federal courthouse to watch a swearing-in ceremony for new citizens. This may be one of the most patriotic moments I have ever experienced, and (in my experience) a most profound exhibit of the rainbow of colors , religions, and races that give American the greatest human potential in the world. We are going through the darkest days in my 65 years, but I retain hope that we will regain our bearings and remember the truth again, through the strength of Americans of every color and creed.
6
Roger, I am impressed at your hope for better times in this America where everything is possible, even the despicability of a 'racist' president subverting the very essence of democracy....while 'enjoying' an irrational support of 40% of the population. This country has lived through dark periods alright, and sort of repented each time...only to repeat our mistakes when a brutus ignoramus is allowed to trample on our freedoms and social justice. We have a long road ahead of us; I just wish I had the confidence of your hope and see redemption by our commitment and trust in each other.
5
So it's true???? Some people really do want to erase history because they think it's a burden? The strength of America is our power to forget history? Really?
4
Two or three years ago I would have agreed with this column. Even with all the police shootings of unarmed people, even with the viril racist treatment of the Obama’s , especially at FLOTUS. I would have agreed.
My thinking was that systems lag behind people, so eventually the systems would start reflecting the America that should be.
Now I’m going to have to ask for proof from the people - specifically White people - before I have any faith in the ideas or systems in America.
In 2016 the people have shown that everything they ever said they stood for (character, family values, freedom, fairness) was a myth or even worse they only meant it for people like theirselves.
11
Very inspiring. I am constantly amazed at the opportunity for good that Americans throw away generation after generation. I'm not a politician and therefore don't have to appease the selfish and misguided among us. What we need is to return to kindergarten where children learn what is fair and why we have to share. Is there anyone who doesn't want his children to learn that? Other than Trump, I mean.
3
Roger: the poet Delmore Schwartz shared your thought on "the beautiful American word, Sure" (in full here: https://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/delmore-schwartz/the-beautiful-ame.... He closes with a hopeful nod to "in dark accidents the mind's sufficient grace." Another poem of and for our moment.
2
This Langston Hughes poem is above all about inclusion not only for those who are declared as Americans through citizenship, but about the dignity of people every where. It points to the cosmic vision of Walt Whitman who declared the sanctity of life as enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.
To me this should be what America is all about. Instead we fight over borders and who is legal and illegal. When will human being be enough? or child of the universe?
4
Men and women of all races have died for the idea that is America, and America will outlast Donald Trump. As Mr. Cohen points out, we have survived the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Great Depression, McCarthyism, and Vietnam. Surely we can survive four or eight years of a madman at the helm. Albeit, during those earlier struggles, we had competent leaders seeking to take us down the right path. Now it is an incompetent leader who would lead us to our own destruction. We shall learn whether our basic fiber is stronger than the reckless will of one man.
See: RevolutionOfReason.com
5
A great choice to place Hughes the man and Hughes' words w/i the context of the usual hoopla on the 4th of July by taking us, e plurbus or unum, through a more complicated hooray for the red, white and blue of America, to stand back from the emotional fervor of rabid patriotism and state there are parts of America that were not there for Hughes, either by his choice or the usual ase, that this America was not for one like Hughes. "The steel of freedom does not stain." Let us come together in this country--workers in factories, plows, in cubicles, inemergency rooms or classrooms, in the places where real work is done, the work dangerous or tedious, well-paid or not, and take back our land again.
4
America must lean forward and reinvent itself.
We are entering the century of climate change- ecological destruction at a level our species has never seen before.
We must cast aside a past which invited tens of millions of people to our shores. That past is gone. We do not have the room and our future is bleak.
We must cast aside the belief that more is better- more people and more resource use. We must cast aside the idea that we are the worlds refuge because soon we will not be able to provide refuge to our own citizens.
We must acknowledge the future we will actually have- one of intense pain. It will be a future of loss. It will be a future of ever increasing temperatures.
We must commit ourselves to the idea that we have unfinished work- the work of protecting our citizens. Adding millions of economic migrants hurts that work. Let us rededicate ourselves to the idea that all of our citizens deserve opportunity and let us protect what we can in our dying world.
3
When Trump boasted he would "make America great again," all thoughtful people already knew that: (a) America has never been great; (b) America has never stopped being great; (c) America's greatness has always existed in its largely-ignored, aspirational, and lofty principles, and only in them; and (d) Trump's corruption, ignorance, and hate could only cast that greatness into a dismal fog, nearly to the point of disappearing from view.
Trump was a Langston Hughes fan?! Was his slogan a nuanced restatement of Hughes' painful-yet-hopeful incantation? Sigh; I don't think so.
America is "exceptional," but ONLY in its commitment to inclusivity and diversity; its generosity in providing a melting pot in which those values can marinade, stew, and grow in flavor and complexity; and in its terribly-imperfect effort to provide freedom and equality as broadly as it has ever been done in history.
Anyone claiming "exceptionality" based on a blindered perspective, or with "America First" still on his lips, is demeaning our great (still great, but with that status under severe threat) country.
3
Jefferson Davis wrote in his memoirs that the Confederacy 'just faded away', and the Northern Yankees wanted to believe that was true.
Unfortunately, the post Civil War South supported the Lost Cause and alternative historical narratives of the reasons for the war. They supported the KKK, Jim Crow laws, miscegenation laws, Poll taxes and that Old Time Religion, Fundamentalism.
We thought a second time that the Old South was finished when LBJ was able to move the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law, with no help from Solid South Democrats, who promptly became the most Conservative Republicans as a response to Johnson's traitorous acts.
And they kept right on trying through Reagan, Gingrich and finally, Trump.
The Confederacy did not fade away, they metastasized and became Evangelicals. Vote the Confederacy out of office every chance you get.
9
I wish I had your immigrant-fueled optimism, Roger.
I myself think, in the immortal words of Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler, that we've all been joined to another object by an inclined plane wrapped helically around an axis.
Or, to put it another way, since we will ultimately get the government we deserve, apparently we've chosen to get it good and hard.
5
America the Beautiful has various choruses. One of my favorites is “America, America, God mend thine every flaw. Preserve thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.”
3
Wonderful. Thank you for the memory of Langston Hughes’ poem. “Let America Be America Again.” It gives us hope for a better future for everyone.
3
I suspect other civilized countries will grasp firmly on the beauty and hope in those passages. And, unfortunately, for now, we will look beyond the US, to find countries putting those words into practice. No country is perfect, we for instance have so many First Nations wrongs to right. And I think we are.
Those of us outside the US still hope you can "right the ship", get back to "E Pluribus Unum". We hope for your success, and yet recognize a need to look elsewhere in the short term for a moral compass.
I don't think you have hit bottom yet. But when you do, I believe you will restore yourself as a legitimate beacon to the rest of the world.
5
I still remember when Michelle Obama spoke briefly of how she was finally proud of America - a statement that seemed to shock white folks. As a white man myself, I cannot understand that we cannot see the grief and anger of those we excluded.
81
Terry: Mrs. Obama said she was finally proud of America...for electing her HUSBAND and elevating them to incredible power and WEALTH. (They now own a $9 million home in Kalorama!)
In other words: Mrs. Obama was ASHAMED of being an American for the first 44 years of her life.
"Thomas Mann, the German writer, defined democracy as “that form of government and society which is inspired above every other with the feeling and consciousness of the dignity of man.” I cannot think of a more inapposite description of the current regime than anything that uses the phrase "dignity of man." Sorry Mr. Cohen but given the current situation, I cannot help being much more sanguine than you are.
3
Nation-building is necessary, but cultural and ethical icons -- the leaders we love and need most -- men like Socrates, Jesus, and Buddha started, and stayed with, themselves. Why didn't they run for public office? Maybe because to do so is grabbing the bull by the tail, and not by the horns.
These three men changed the world, making it much better, without the benefit of armies, navies, police, judges, political theories, or administrative budgets. They didn't even write letters to the editor.
Plato, Socrates' student, jumped out of politics, seeing that it was a wasted effort. Self-knowledge, however, pays huge dividends; with it, you can move psychological mountains and thus change the direction of the world. Politics is just war by other means: ultimately a dead end and just kicks the can down the road. Only better people can create a better world.
History shows that self-aware, enlightened individuals can lead us out of the darkness into the light, a light where we'll find solutions to problems, personal, social, and political.
Socrates is famous for saying "Know thyself," not vote for me. And the weight of the recorded evidence is that he did more for posterity than Pericles. Therefore, maybe most of us here should let go of the tail and reach for the horns: We can change ourselves much more efficaciously than we can our elected representatives and corporate masters. And then we'd be in a position to realize our country's noble ideals, and not just talk about them.
3
I too am an American, transformed legally in an old theatre in Oakland six years ago no doubt, but transformed in reality by years of living here, turning around and finding myself to be who I am. That others might embrace me or reject me does not make me an American, and just the law does not do so either. Sad, but I think the only reason my president, the president of America, has been elected president is because he is a white man. There is no way just being a white man makes someone American.
3
Thank you. Beautiful essay.
2
It's difficult to feel pride or a sense of hope for this country. People say "this is not who we are" and yet, time and again, they are proven wrong. This is precisely who we are. Look to the White House, so aptly named, and you will see who we are. VOTE!
4
Both enslaving blacks and nearly exterminating the Indian tribes are a part of the American legacy.
You write "Nowhere else is becoming somebody else so easy."On the external level that may seem true, but external changes alone seem to me to be pretending to be somebody else. That is an easy option. Internal changes as well as external ones are needed to become someone else. I think one is then actually partnering to create their true self. Those real changes are not easy, and it's possible to do it anywhere. Was America historically more fertile soil for one who is so inclined to make those internal changes? Is it now?
1
American exceptionalism thrives at the convergence of two myths: the original, founding myth that America is more free than any other land; and the complementary myth, intensified by the experience of America's immigrants, that the nation is a land of economic opportunity. The Statue of Liberty represents both, a beacon calling the world to this unique combination of freedom and opportunity that makes America special.
There was a time when these two myths—imperfectly realized as they were—at least approximated the reality that most Americans lived. Today, though, as Cato and Freedom House report annually, America lags other nations in freedom. And while economic opportunity is still good in America, economic inequities are as large as ever and the quality of life for many Americans has declined below that of the middle class in other advanced nations.
Americans still cherish the myths—but as the myths and reality increasingly seem to diverge, rage infects the American mind. How can this be? America is the greatest nation in the world—the freest, the wealthiest, the most powerful. How can we feel as if so much is slipping away? Who is to blame? There must be someone to blame!
Myths can empower people—they give them a vision of perfection to strive for. But they can also blind people to the reality around them. Sometimes there is no one to blame. Sometimes the problem is us. We need to work harder to improve ourselves. But maybe, today, the myth gets in the way?
4
Sometime in the future when the hologram teacher is showing the history of the United States to all of the beige children, one will giggle with her hand raised and will ask a simple question: ''Why were people of a different skin color treated differently ? ''
The hologram teacher will respond that there were some that believed that a darker skin color meant less of a human being.
The little girl will look at the hologram teacher and exclaim : ''Well that was dumb'', and the entire class will break out laughing.
Such it will be ...
4
This is an optimistic piece. But I’m not ready to say with Cohen: “I want to believe.” There’s not enough to believe in.
If Langston Hughes were alive in 2018 would he still believe “in the unique potential of the United States for reinvention”? America doesn’t reinvent itself; it keeps repeating the past: racism, oligarchy, theocracy, imperialism. It was Faulkner who uttered the truth about America: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
It’s America who fetishizes the past: it was founded as a Christian nation, an exceptional nation full of exceptional people (whites), and “of the people, by the people.” All, of course, are false, but America clings to those myths today, and many want to return to the “glorious” past – to “make America great again.”
America was founded on abstractions, on aspirations, rather than reality. The founding fathers declared “All men are created equal,” and “We the people” – but their actions defied those assertions. Those ideals were window dressing for the reality that America was meant to be a club for white, Christian, propertied males with special perks for those in that group who could game the system and accumulate wealth and power, control the government to their advantage, and devise ways (lies, propaganda, demagoguery, tribe appeal) to prevent the lower classes from revolting.
Did the founding fathers actually believe in the soaring ideals they proclaimed – or did they outright deceive us about what America was?
3
America is an ideal that drew my parents to immigrate here from Scotland with 3 children in 1963. We lost our first president to an assassin's bullet and turmoil and riots and the war in Vietnam glared on our living room TV as we grew up, but my parents always believed the American colleagues who literally gave us the beds we slept on were the greatest people on earth. My father was a Royal Navy veteran who saw every continent during WW2. He believed in our dream of equality. We should work towards that ideal every day. thank you for this beautiful column. We are all Americans.
2
Roger, I suppose that as a relatively newly naturalized American citizen you have to be optimistic. You've made a decision to move to America and you're now invested in the American dream. And you're trying your best, despite all of the events that you've witnessed and the information you receive to the contrary, to believe in the American dream. Unfortunately, like many who have made such a major decision as you have, your cognitive dissonance is working overtime, your brain is trying to filter out as much of the negative information about this country as it can, and it's trying to reinforce the positive information beyond reality.
As one who has served in the armed forces of this country, I can tell you that what you're seeing and hearing now is what this country is truly all about - and it's what this country truly has been about ever since its founding over 200 years ago. I hate to burst your bubble, but at some point you're going to have to realize that the title of your opinion piece should have been "American Never Was, And Never Will Be."
5
The authors of our Constitution included in the original document no qualifications for citizenship. Even when a later generation of lawmakers corrected this omission (1868; 14th amendment), the drafters included everyone born in the US, along with those who had fulfilled the requirements for naturalization, without specifying what those requirements might be. The audacious ideal implicit in this language created the potential that America could welcome people from around the world, regardless of their ethnicity, religious background or cultural heritage. In theory, new citizens would only have to subscribe to the political principles inscribed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, to gain equality with Americans whose families had resided here for generations.
In practice, however, this generous approach clashed with the fears and insecurities that evolution has embedded within the human psyche. Each new wave of arrivals confronted hostility from members of older immigrant groups who scorned their ethnic heritage and religious values or distrusted their commitment to democracy. With the exception of African Americans, who have always been treated as foreigners in their native land, the identity of the victims changed over time, but the source of prejudice remained remarkably consistent.
America remains a work in progress. Our future depends on whether we respond to Langston Hughes or to Donald Trump. That will determine who we are as a people.
6
So well said. In Mr. Cohen's piece this morning there is a reference to two states of being, that of love and that of fear. Perhaps this is the source of our conflicts and choosing which way to live and this brackets the American experience.
2
This column truly inspired me!
Instead of staying indoors and brooding, like I normally do on Independence Day, this year I reclaimed the holiday and declared independence from white males!
I shopped exclusively at minority owned businesses, and eschewed the use of things that have been invented by white males, like computers, electricity, and cars.
For anyone who is interested in Declaring their Independence next year, I strongly encourage this approach!
4
The real America never was. That is a truth. But we must have the strength to hope that it will be. So thank you for this column.
11
Mr. Cohen's article Is wonderful and inspiring. The root of his hopefulness is "America''s refusal to fetishize the past. I add that the scriptures that form the basis of belief for the majority of Americans contain, in the Gospel According to John and in some Epistles, warnings against fetishizing the entire tome. Of course, the final statement in the Bible is often understood as referring to the entire book rather than, as on its face, sealing the report of the author's vision.
Just as many, hopefully enough, Americans respect our Constitution's strictures against fetishization, so, hopefully enough, American Christians will respect the biblical warning against it.
1
This is the most realistic and beautiful poem I have ever read about our Country. Our disparity can be healed. May it's truth be realized
18
This was lovely and brings me hope. Thank you, Mr. Cohen.
15
The attitude expressed in this poem by Langston Hughes is exactly what our country needs right now. It does not deny our failure to live up to our ideals, and it also celebrates the value and importance of those ideals. I am disheartened both by the jingoistic false patriotism on the right and the cynical dismissal of patriotism on the left. I refuse to cede the beauty of America’s ideals to either side. To me, the respectful act of protest started by Colin Kaepernick of ‘taking a knee’ during the national anthem embodies approach. Thank you Roger, and thank you Langston! For this reminder of an honest, inclusive, and patriotic way forward.
44
I read the Hughes poem on the 3rd. You have written piece using the Hughes poem. It can give hope if we just look for it and act when we can to better the wrongs that are self evident in the current atmosphere. Mr. Trump cannot ruin our ability to hope, must not ruin it. (no I will not call him President.)
42
I was privileged to teach in a GED program in Pennsylvania for 6 years. And while the greater percentage of people in the class were from local towns many were immigrants. There was the older Afghani gentleman who fled the Taliban and was later able to bring his wife and grown children to America. While in my class he celebrated the birth of his little daughter whose name in Pashto meant 'gift of freedom.' We all gathered 'round to see the photos he displayed on his phone. There was a talented musician who had grown up in Kenya, was of the same tribe as Obama and could tell our class that Obama's grandmother lived just down the street. His teen-aged daughter was visiting his family back in Kenya when Boco Haram became active and he was texting her to keep a low profile. His classmates asked about her safety daily. A middle-aged man told of escaping Vietnam with his family as a six-year old, his feet burning on the hot tar. They couldn't run on the grass because there were too many bodies. He and his family were the boat people the class had just learned about. As a class we wrote a poem about his escape and a female student from Peru finished the poem with the word 'Valiente' to describe our Vietnamese friend. There wasn't a dry eye in the class. And for me those people I grew to know and care about showed the best of what happens when humanity and caring shows up daily in extraordinary ordinary people.
171
My morning of editorial reading began with the column by David T. Smith, "A Lesson in Demonizing Refugees." In it he wrote, “The only way to deter people desperate enough to risk death on their journey to a new country is to threaten them with conditions worse than the ones they fled. The United States has so far been unwilling to do this explicitly, and Americans seem unprepared to face the human consequences of such an approach.”
I consider myself a caring American and the column shook me to the core and Langston Hughes has certainly offered us a lesson in painful reality.
Somehow, America must step beyond what Trump is preaching and worse, doing. There are solutions if we but look. Ending up as Australia has become is not the answer.
11
thank you. this poem is as relevant today as then. sad.
9
The American idea was never flawed: it merely was never reflected in reality. We started out as a bunch of moxy rebels with a pretty good bead on human motivations, but with something that no other nation had ever established as a set of guiding principles. Oh, Greek philosophers had expounded on elements of that idea, but they never really founded a nation that sought to base itself on them. And pretty savvy philosophers throughout history made their contributions as well, including a formidable man about 2,000 years ago who preached a radical philosophy of life and faith; but they didn’t found nations, either. Even the ones who succeeded, such as Marx, failed abysmally in the end to provide a coherent framework that actually worked and that lasted.
Ours did, despite the fact that we have yet to fully live up to our noblest aspirations. It may be that humans never can, but we likely will come closest for having that framework and for having succeeded at basing a great nation on it.
America always was, but was never wholly what our better angels wanted it to be. We still aren’t. I don’t KNOW that we ever WILL be; but we’ll still strike closer to our ambitions and our better angels than others, because of what we’ve always aspired to be.
15
Ironic, isn't it, the our move for independence in 1776 was driven by rich, white men who decided that living under the tyranny of an arbitrary monarch abetted by a distant Parliament was no longer acceptable .
Many of those same rich, white men helped draft the most enduring Constitution in history to government under a s
ethic of guideles that specified the rights of freedom for the Union's citizens. Those same rich, white men constructed a government of three, co-equal branches setting a healthy tension to limit power and assuring that the consent of the government would be reflected in the actions in the name of the federated states.
Many of the complaints of today accuse the "rich and white" denying others the right to participate. While there certainly areas of governance where that accusation has validity, a much more realistic criticism attends to those who choose not to accept the responsibility of citizenship to be an active part of the debate for our future.
Debate is not shouting or marching. Debate is not boorish behavior or not providing others with the considerations one expects for oneself. Debate is not stifling or denying others the right to speak.
Debate takes work. Debate requires thinking and reasoning. Debate requires listening and respectful conversation. Debate can be heated, even rancorous...but the objective of debate is not division but consensus.
How about debating for a change. The issues that are in play have solutions. Find them!
3
That's rich considering at the beginning Black People were excluded, women had no rights, and the Native People were not only excluded but hunted almost to extinction, later to be treated as animals.The accommodations to the Slave holding states still are being used to allow minority control of power, ( Electoral College, Senators per State, voting restrictions etc.). And please don't forget the contributions of the Iroquois Tribes in helping to frame the Declaration on Independence and the first Articles of the Confederacy. The American ideas didn't begin with the rich white folks who got here first, a lot of the ideas came from the Native People who lived here for 10,000 years before the White Man arrived.
3
The Owl:
I offer purchase for and invite debate every day in my comments; and have now here for many years. But it's an uphill-climb. Increasingly, responses to those comments aren't attempts at rational debate but excoriations of a worldview.
Your choice of "forward leaning and risk embracing" sounds too much like corporate speak to me.
Corporate employees are sometimes told to just "do it" when we can see for ourselves that "it" is not meaningful in any way. To the ones who are leaning forward and taking risks, you are not entitled to think--just do. They are laser-focussed on vanquishing the competition, no matter what it takes.
Sometimes it takes defiling the earth, sometimes sacrificing lives, yet they "lean forward." That mantra cuts both ways:
accomplishing goals--and breaking things.
So as Americans, let's not speak in corporatese.
10
What defines a country are its inhabitants. No matter how lofty its ideals and aspirations they don't amount to much if too many of the people in it ignore them. The US, seen as the land of opportunity, has attracted immigrants from all over the world creating a country with unique diversity and creative energy. That is its strength and that is what is under siege by people who are afraid of the future and unwilling to face the need to reinvent themselves as the country evolves. Trump has found a mother lode in this fear and shamelessly fans it to keep a grip on power with a complicit Republican party. Trump and his enablers cannot hold back the future but they will inflict a lot of damage before this sorry period dissipates. All Americans whose ancestors did not immigrate thousands of years ago need to remember that they are at most two generations away from some one who came from elsewhere. In fact, among those who have been here longest were brought in as slaves and faced the longest struggle to be recognized as indispensable contributors to American culture.
34
I find it hard to be optimistic but I haven't given up yet.
It's clear to me that our political/economic institutions are in terminal decay and can't be fixed. The Supreme Court has been politicized enough so that the Constitution has been annulled, but even if we got it back it wouldn't work. The Profit System is fundamentally incompatible with ecological survival and we will need a different structure for whatever comes next.
Our former popular ideals have also collapsed. Americans used to make a big deal about freedom and liberty but no one cares about that any more. They are panicked and they care only about security. The "land of the free and the home of the brave" has been stood on its head.
Still, I think Americans as individuals are better than their politics would indicate. Maybe they will get it together somehow. I haven't given up yet. Or maybe we will fragment into more manageable pieces. I could do without Texas and Oklahoma.
33
Wait a minute, there, sir. Fine Americans live here in the fine state of Oklahoma, and I assure you, despite the political face, what it seems is not what it is. I am proud to be an Okie and an American and that has nothing to do with politics per se, but rather as Mr. Hughes, Mr. Cohen, and Thomas Mann bring out the power is in living the Idea and that idea-freedom- is inherent in humanity.
To this point, democracy does this best, messy as it is. Don't give up on your birthright yet, my friend. And....yes, in light of a world vastly different from 1776, our institutions could stand a rethink.
1
Wizard maybe I should spell it out and say money profit system. Money profits don't take ecological damage into account, and to try to regulate these effects would bury everyone in red tape.
Anne I know there are good people in Texas and Oklahoma and we should assist them with relocation.
The country suffers from the image it projects. It has never been free except for those of european extraction and even they had to shorten or change family names to fit in. To propose that the country is or has been a beacon on a hill to any and all is just not true. Since it's inception it has exterminated, enslaved, and brutalized numerous people both here and abroad {especially those in Latin or African countries} to achieve what ir considered to be greatness. What Hughes writes is both beautiful and aspirational but sadly even after all these years unattainable for lots of it's own citizens. Trump is the realized public version of the part of America a lot of people try and insist doesn't exist, or only exist in small numbers. but they do and the numbers of them are big enough to win a presidentuial election.. The reason he can say and do such awful things is that he has millions of people in this country who feel just the way he does and they are as much a part of America's soul as anyone else. Hughes poem could just as easily be written today or for that matter at anytime in the country's history.
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"It has never been free except for those of European extraction"?
Perhaps that explains why men and women and children from Africa, Latin American, and Asia frequently risk all, including sometimes their lives, to come here.
1
Slavery wasn’t America’s original sin. Slavery was a malady America inherited in 1776 from the colonial powers. Even before the Constitution was drafted, the confederated states exacted the Ordinance of 1787, which banned slavery in the Northwest Territory, which became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In 1789 the nation adopted a constitution that was mute on slavery because the delegates were sharply divided on the issue. If abolitionists had insisted on an anti-slavery clause there would have been no union. So, the matter was left to the states. Some states immediately set about abolished slavery. Slavery lasted one lifetime—not hundreds of years—in the United States. Some slaves who were infants or toddlers when the Constitution was signed lived to see the end of slavery in 1865.
7
Original sin is the one you are born with, not the one you yourself originate. So, yes, slavery was America's original sin (or at least one of several). And it existed in what become the United States for more than 200 years. Its end is so recent that my father (in his 80s now) actually has photographs of himself as a toddler in the 1930s with a man who was born a slave in his (my) own family. And of course, slavery's child, Jim Crow, lasted another 100 years after slavery's end—and seems to be prolifically fledging new young today.
6
You calculate slavery as existing only since the Constitution was signed. But don't forget that it was already practiced for centuries in what would become our country - it shaped us horribly and its attitudes have persisted into and now dominate the present era.
3
That is untrue. Slavery lasted in the United States from 1879 to 1865, a period of 76 years. O the United States, people of all races--including free black--owned slaves,
However, slavery existed in the Americas for thousands of year, The Mayan, Inca and Aztec empires were slave based. The largest slave market that ever existed in North Americas was the Aztec slave market at Tenochtitlan. And slavery was common among the tribes the Pilgrims and Puritans encountered when they arrived in America. Since the 13th Amendment did not apply to the Indian Territory, Native Americans were the last to give up slavery. The Indian Bureau ended slavery within U.S. territory by separate negotiation with each tribe.
Yes Roger, time to read and remember as I did here in Sweden. I had run in my forest and then had supper at a table at forest'.s edge. There before me Jesmyn Ward's "Sing Unburned Sing" an America we were never taught about through high school and collegends.
Time to read, remember and move on as Adrian Piper tells us in 2 curent Times interviews.
Only-Never in Sweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
3
I went to a reading of the Declaration of Independence on the fourth of July in Rosendale, NY. When the readers read the offending actions of King George leading to the War for Independence, clauses describing the monarch's grip on immigration and trade between nations brought laughter and applause from the audience because we were all thinking of the horrors of the current administration. A pickup oompah band from the community closed the event and then lined up along the sidewalk across from the theater to serenade us as we enjoyed cakes decorated as American flags -- respectful to the nation and very hopeful but not without the necessary critique.
The critique and hope -- I see that reflected in today's column.
17
While I don't share the author's optimism at this time, I believe we will survive, but I am not willing to bet on it just yet. The depths to which Trump will lead us are incalculable, and the recovery time unknown. I am an aging baby boomer, and I don't expect to see the recovery in my lifetime, however long. We are on the precipice of a steep cliff that could result in a civil war, a dictatorship, an economic disaster, a nuclear war, and numerous other disastrous outcomes. The chances to avoid one or more of these are becomes less and less by the day. Pray for our nation and VOTE IN NOVEMBER!!
185
Aging baby boomer here, rantall. I do share your despair. However, I have to believe that the fervor shown during the primaries tells us that change is possible, maybe probable. Old, white men are on their way out (yes, a bit of a generalization) and the young, especially women, will take their places. THEN maybe we will have the America most of us dream of.
3
Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
I find it hard to be optimistic. Yes, there was time when despite all its imperfections America led the world in its vision and its striving to make that vision real.
But I'm afraid that time is past. America is in decline and other nations have taken the lead. Canada, where I live now, delivers on America's promises far better than America does today.
Nothing human is permanent. Nothing endures forever. I'm afraid that America's time has peaked and the question now is merely whether its descent is fast or slow.
49
Of all the opinionators in the Times, Mr. Cohen succeeds best in expressing the truths of our country in a way that is not polemical. This makes his words ones that will remain timeless, as are the ones of Langston Hughes. Thank you. What immigrants are we at this moment excluding who might make an equally valuable contribution?
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It is good to be reminded of the ideals that founded this country and never fully realized. America, from its beginning, is a work in progress. It began with a great plan but papered over terrible practices. We have been slowly and steadily eliminating those wrongdoings, but thanks to Donald Trump and the Republican white power movement, our nation has been sent back 100 years.
The excuse is always the same. We can't have unlimited immigration! We don't have room for everyone! We are being overrun!
All are bogus. True that about half a million desperate people try to cross over each year, but they are stopped. There is no unabated flood of illegal immigrants because they are stopped. Some do get through, but we are not being overrun.
There are currently millions of unfilled jobs, more jobs than there are unemployed, even with the undocumented workers. The Trump people claim that these workers are pushing down wages. Also not true.
By not granting them some kind of official work status, employers can take advantage of them. By wrecking trade unions, employers can take advantage of everyone. By having a Supreme Court that constantly rules against workers and takes away their rights, wages are suppressed. By greatly reducing taxes on corporations and the rich, there is no money to fund trade schools and worker training.
And all it is being done by those who actively support the white power movement in the name of patriotism. Langston Hughes was right on.
220
America was not created to form a "Perfect Union." Only, a more perfect union. We have to work every day to improve America, to demand she lives up to our ideals of liberty and justice for all. Otherwise, we are no more exceptional than any other nation.
84
America has never escaped the dark shadow of slavery nor has it come to terms with its Puritan roots. There are still those who believe extreme wealth is a sign of favor from God and a mark of the "elect." And they can believe this with no religious affiliation and no true religion. Donald Trump marks the ascendance of those who believe their just due isn't just fabulous wealth, but adoration for their generous gifts to mankind. Yes, there is another strain in the American character, but today it is best manifested by the courage and resistance of American women. We have to hope they will prevail.
133
Thank you for bringing my attention to this wonderful work by Langston Hughes. I appreciate your sharing it and your commentary. Our country is not perfect; our leaders are not perfect; we are not perfect; yet together we can and will continue to let America be America again.
41
All political pronouncements are aspirational rather than descriptive. They affirm the importance of what is yet not and what is yet to be achieved. The illusion we harbor is that these aspirations are reality. We live, however, within a contradiction: while we are wrong in thinking that their goal has been achieved, the constant reminder of these goals is what gives hope for the future and a reality to be pursued.
7
What makes the United States different from other countries is this core founding principle that all men (in the general sense) are created equal. It is not implied or conditional. It is literally written in stone.
Whoever is president or police officer or judge or boss or teacher can't remove this deeply held belief from those oppressed and possibly even from those who oppress.
Until that phrase is obliterated from the monuments and minds of the people, the country will not slide all the way into fascism.
Thank you for publishing that beautiful poem of aspiration. It is meaningful for every last human on earth.
18
I hadn't realized that the "founding fathers" etched their manifesto into a stone for posterity. How quaint! Paper or stone, take your pick! If something is a "deeply held belief" is it reliant on the permanence of what it is written on? The sophists can interpret words to serve their own agenda. We are indeed at peril if we are led by mere words.
2
When do we run out of space? When the population is at 500 million? A billion? Open borders advocates never tell us their ideal number. I suppose quantity is all some folks have when the commitment to abstractions overpowers any qualitative sense of history or tradition.
2
No one is advocating “open borders”. We have always had immigration policies to control the influx of immigrants into our country. We will continue to have an immigration policy. The question is, will this be a policy which realistically addresses the reality of todays migrant situation while taking into account the needs of our country ? After all, we are truly a nation of immigrants. Our openness and diversity has made us great in the past. Let us continue to “make America great again” for the future.
5
@Dale: I read these forums daily. I especially read & post on those directly about illegal immigration. If I had the ability, and I could archive every post DIRECTLY calling for open borders, I could log thousands of them. Many tens of thousands more ask that we do not enforce immigration laws, so effectively THEY (and you) ARE calling for open borders -- what message will 45 million Central Americans get, if the current crop of caravans gets through?
The needs of OUR nation are for fewer people -- fewer immigrants -- ZERO illegal aliens -- no more anchor babies -- and Zero Population Growth.
The left is very cynical in wanting massive illegal immigration and amnesty, and DACA, because they salivate over all those potential Democratic voters.....
I frequently enjoy reading Roger Cohen's insightful columns, and as much as I love Langston Hughes' work I feel that here, in these times, Cohen's optimism is strangely sugarcoated by it.
Rather, read Adrienne Rich's short, meditative 2004 essay, 'The Baldwin Stamp'
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3der0xlqici36ld/The%20Baldwin%20Stamp%20%28A.%...
, which does not dispel Hughes's view of America, is also not angry; but it gives America the body that Hughes's lacks in Roger Cohen's wistful take on it.
5
Thank you for sharing Ms. Rich's essay on James Baldwin. He probed deep - perhaps deeper than anyone else - into the fundamental contradiction of America with "its blur of fantasies and wealth" - the utopian ideals always remaining elusively out of reach. And yet other countries, countries less great and terrible, have now come much closer to realizing ideals of equal justice and opportunity for all.
4
I agree with Thomas Mann but, alas, America is not a democracy, it is a plutocracy, which may be further from democracy than autocracy.
102
America's best moments are when we rise to the task at hand. I would say this moment could be, like the Revolution, the Civil War and WWII, be one of our best moments. And we don't even have to shed blood this time. I am 62 years old and there were two things that shocked me in my lifetime. The election of Donald Trump was one of them. The other was not the 9/11 attacks nor the assassinations of the 60s. I was just a kid when all that happened. I am not going to say what the second one was. I will just say that both events showed me how wrong I was and that things I thought had been settled in this country were not.
17
America will only be the America of our ideals and of the aspirations expressed in our founding documents if We the People do our duty to insist upon integrity, truth-telling and promise keeping from our elected officials.
We ought to stop applauding lies and bad faith as a political tactic if our side wins judges. We ought to stop voting for people who put base politics and the next election over the good of the nation.
This country is US. It will be what we insist it will be.
228
Amen!
But we are not angels nor demons. We are apes.
Our color aka race, seems to always trump our USA caste and class.
We must make our own Wakanda forever real.
1
Well said, I would only add that there is no reason to limit the insistence on good character to elected officials. We depend on each other to act with honesty and integrity throughout our society - bankers, doctors, police, grocers, managers, teachers, drivers and many others. Elected officials, until they win an election, are one of us and are unlikely to change for the better once in office. There needs to be huge number of citizens ethically suitable for office if we hope to have those positions regularly occupied by someone ethical.
3
Let me (echoing someone who said it first) ask this question of all Americans who feel they are not yet free. What are you doing with the freedom you have?
Then let's exchange ideas about how you might become freer still in this land of unequaled freedom.
40
Roy, I own an architectural design business in a small town. One of my clients is an elderly black gentleman. When we met, he proudly said he had put all five of his kids through college, because "education is everything." He was disappointed in one son, who quit college because he found a "good job." He warned his son that to move ahead he needed "credentials." He went out the door, shaking his head.
Later, I emailed him that his preliminary plan was ready and that I left it on a pick-up point on our back porch so that he could get it at his convenience. The next day he came in and asked me to retrieve the plans from the back porch. He explained that he did not want to be seen around back, even though it was a parking area. He didn't want someone to think he was a burglar.
This is a man who knows the value of education, who worked hard to get all five kids into college, who owns his own business, and in his seventies is still doing construction to pay the bills. This is a black American who has to think about his every move to get through the day without trouble.
I can't imagine what that is like. I've used the back porch of our building as a pick-up point for over thirty years. I never gave a moment's thought to his reality.
How might he become "freer still?" Only if the attitudes of a nation changes, if we are all humanely educated, and if we vote in leaders who understand and believe in the American ideal.
8
I would counter that it's not the responsibility of the oppressed to "prove" to us that that they deserve to be treated as equals.
Why are you asking only them to justify what they're "doing with the freedom you have"; you should be asking the same question of all Americans!
Your comment follows the trope of shifting responsibility/blame onto the victims, rather than the perpetrators.
I would also counter that oppressed people have been continually offering to "exchange ideas" about their situation, but that their conversations have been ignored and dismissed and rejected by those who hold power.
Has America as a whole (and the people in power) been listening and engaging in conversation with Black Lives Matter?
With the Native Americans who've been affected by the Dakota Access Pipeline?
With the citizens of Flint MI?
With LGBT people who still aren't covered by anti-discrimination laws?
With the families of asylum-seekers who've been separated at our borders?
With the families affected by the opioid crisis?
All of these people (and many others) have been continuously telling us about what America needs so that all its citizens can "become freer."
How has America responded? Trump personally atatcks them! The Rightwing Media propagandize against them! And the Deplorables blatantly spew hatred! (Go read the comments on Fox News.)
It is the responsibility of ALL Americans (not just the targets!) to use our freedoms to help those who are less free.
2
Mr. Cohen cites the great Thomas Mann, who moved to the US during the Third Reich being married to Katia, nee Pringsheim, who was Jewish.
As a German social Democrat - considered akin to be communist - during the McCarthy era, he had to testify for The House Un-American Activities Committee, and said:
"As an American citizen of German birth I finally testify that I am painfully familiar with certain political trends, spiritual intolerance, political inquisition, declining legal security, and all this in the name of an alleged 'state of emergency'.
That is how it started in Germany".
As another American citizen of German birth, I am terrified to see history repeat itself more than eight decades later on this side of the Atlantic.
494
The "Wikipedia" article about Thomas Mann is also referring to your quote. The next following sentences following in this article read as follows:
"As Mann joined protests against the jailing of the Hollywood Ten and the firing of schoolteachers suspected of being Communists, he found ‘the media had been closed to him.’ ”[] Finally he was forced to quit his position as Consultant in Germanic Literature at the Library of Congress [] and in 1952 he returned to Europe, to live in Kilchberg, near Zurich, Switzerland."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann
("last years")
No further comment.
1
So, then, why is the promise of America far greater for a white immigrant man than a domestic black man? Hughes' hope for America requires dismantling the third rail of American politics and social structure: racism. Grateful immigrants who have prospered in America are usually white and have benefited from the legacy of slavery and exploitation visited upon black people. As Americans, we can appreciate your gratitude; but you should remain cognizant of the reality of on whose back your prosperity rests.
120
Our Fathers were not morally and ethically perfect by any means. But they framed ideals for a nation which has made our country a work in progress. That's why America is Great! There has never been a time in the past in which things were ideal. I grew up in a small town in the 50s and early 60s. It seemed ideal in many ways. Of course if you were black you couldn't buy a home in about 98% of the community. Jewish kids who wanted to fit in and be in the class play had to be in Christmas pageants. But times have improved. Sometimes things have back tracked a bit but progress has gone on. I hope after Trump leaves office we could again continue forward!
79
Like Cohen, I started my July 4th reflecting on the poetry of Langston Hughes, as well as Frederick Douglass' "What to a Slave is the 4th of July" speech. Hughes' "I, Too, Am America" was the selection that soothed my soul. It is absolutely amazing how apropos and timeless the words of Hughes and Douglass continue to be. As Cohen suggested, Hughes addressed the realism of racism yet alluded to the hopeful transcendence of a better tomorrow. Certainly as Hughes taught us, "life ain't been no crystal stair," but optimism must remain the balm we reach for during these ever-increasing days of despair. Like Hughes, I choose to "keep striving, and keep climbing," because to succumb to any other course or direction would feel like a betrayal to all my hardworking ancestors whose shoulders upon which I stand.
355
Beautiful, Ms. May-Washington. Thank you.
2
Beautifully phrased, thoughtful and inspiring!
1
Amen! Well!
'What happens to a dream deferred? " …." Does lt.....dry up? Or.... explode?'
2
Roger Cohen is a smart, tolerant and educated person. But, look at the logical mistake he just made. Please, read carefully the following paragraphs:
“This magical capacity for reinvention lies at the root of American greatness. Other nations fetishize the past, rewrite it in blood; America’s genius is the facilitation of forgetfulness. To be unburdened of history, for many immigrants, enables the pursuit of happiness. But not for all: That pursuit, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence in 1776, was denied to blacks. They were not citizens but slaves. This, as Barack Obama put it, was America’s “original sin.” It would not be easily expurgated.”
See, Mr. Cohen just explained how the history burdened the other nations.
However, what’s his very next step? To unburden the ancient history and never let it die by constantly reopening the old wounds and inflaming the ancient animosities and injustice.
I came into America as a refugee, so I have a sixth sense for such journalistic foolishness. It destroyed my old country and saddled us with a bloody civil war.
The idiots wanted to divide us to make us more unified, stronger and cohesive…
The logical mistakes keep destroying our humanity and sinking into the endless conflicts.
For example, let’s start the war to protect the peace…
Actually the war destroys the peace…
38
My mother is in her 90s. During WW2, she worked in a plant that manufactured fuses for bombs. Her fiance went off to the Pacific, to do his duty with the Navy and never returned. My father served in Europe with the Air Force. They met when the shooting ended.
Mom is profoundly depressed and upset about current political conditions, which she recognizes as negations of the principles for which her generation sacrificed.
As a white baby boomer, I was among those who enjoyed the security that working class people could attain, thanks to my mother's generation. I wish I could console her with the assertion that she is likely to live long enough to see justice and equality for everyone in the US, but I can't preach fairy tales.
Shame on the greedy, hateful destroyers of American ideals.
457
I'm a naturalized citizen and keenly aware of racism. Still and all, I feel the USA and I have been good to each other. At the age of 81, I have no regrets.
50
Like Mr Cohen, I was born in England in the fifties. My father brought me up to be grateful to America for its great sacrifice and support towards our own freedom. I grew up inspired by the words of the Kennedy brothers, Jack and Bobby, and black and white images of the first moon landing. Here was hope, a can do spirit and a sense of “sure” towards a better world. We learnt of America’s imperfections through assasinations and Vietnam protests. For the reasons Mr Cohen cites, I continue to believe in a more perfect America. I also believe, just as during and after World War II, the world needs American leadership and example, especially in moving towards the description of democracy made by Thomas Mann.
E Pluribus Unum
51