Who is American?

       

          Last week a native Afghani named Najibulla came to UVU to speak about the war (he’s a member of the US military) and efforts of the US in Afghanistan.  After explaining a bit about Afghani culture and life there he accepted questions.  Having lived in the US for the last seven years or so, someone asked Najib if he saw himself as an Afghani or an American at this point. He said that Afghanistan will always be a part of his identity, and then he asked, “Who is an American? By definition?” The crowd murmured a bit among themselves.

Najibulla then said, “Some would say that you have to be born in America, raised with American culture to be American.  For some, coming here, taking the test and gaining citizenship will never be enough. For them I’ll always just be someone who looks like a terrorist.

As a young person when I thought of freedom I thought of America.  There was no other place on earth that I knew of that protected not only its citizens but their right to disagree with leadership. That was America to me.

So, if an American is someone who is free to believe, worship, and act as they choose; someone who is allowed personal opinions and can think and say that the judgments of his/her leaders aren’t always perfect, who can call the president stupid without being shot; if an American is someone who works hard, earns his/her way and can spend his/her money however they choose than I am more American than anything else.”

I wish you guys could have been there. In that moment I wanted to cry— half proud to be an American, recognizing the truth in that statement, and half embarrassed at our general lack of acceptance.

If you’ve never seen the film My Name is Khan you are missing out. It’s on Netflix, so watch it.  Trust me.

Maya Angelou gave a commencement speech, which can be found in her book Letter to My Daughter, in that speech she wrote about our duty to our future, she said, “make a difference. Use this degree, which you have earned to increase virtue in your world… Let us so live that we will not regret years of uselessness and inertia.”

In that same book Ms. Angelou also said, “How have we come so late and lonely to this place? When did we relinquish our desire for a high moral ground to those who clutter our national landscape with vulgar accusations and gross speculation?

Are we not the same people who have fought a war in Europe to eradicate an Aryan threat to murder an entire race? Have we not worked, prayed, planned to create a better world? Are we not the same citizens who struggled, marched and went to jail to obliterated legalized racism from our country? Didn’t we dream of a country where freedom was in the national conscience and dignity was the goal?”

            Are we sticking up for that America? To Najibulla an “American” was anyone who desired and worked for freedom. It was an idea, not a birthright. I hope he’s right.

For a fabulous listening experience click here to hear more about Najibulla from Scott Carrier's Prisoner of Zion