A Place Like No Other?

I wrote this commentary not long after 9/11. I believe that it still makes sense - you decide. 

I am obsessed these days with putting my thoughts down on paper, and, what’s more extreme, with broadcasting them. It is, in a sense, one United States citizen's flag waving. 

While I share the admiration that many have for some aspects of “American” culture, the United States of America is not the best place in the world in which to live. Rigorously applied, almost any set of objective criteria would indicate otherwise. 

Those who think that the USA ranks above all other countries as the bastion of democracy, or in the exercise of justice, fairness and civility, simply haven’t had the privilege of living (living, not visiting) in other countries, or have not afforded themselves of the opportunity to become informed. 

Some examples: 

Let’s consider a poor black fellow from Harlem. Do you think that he would be as likely as Bill Gates, for example, to get a heart replacement or a new kidney? No? Is that fair? Would the poor guy’s chances be better if he lived in any of several other countries? I believe, rather I know, that they would. 

Justice? Look, if every lawbreaker - every murderer, rapist and common thief - had the financial resources of an O. J. or Puffy and a defense team headed by a lawyer of the caliber of the late Johnny Cochran, what would the U.S.A. do with its idle prisons? Do you think the application of justice in the U.S.A. has anything to do with wealth or power? I think it does. 

The U.S.A. still boasts, and rightly, of having some splendid universities. George Bush attended one of them. Do you imagine that he got in because of his intelligence? How many people, far more intelligent that he, do you suppose have had their applications trashed, with scarcely a glance, by the same great university? Is that democracy? You decide. 

Many of us have been persuaded that unbridled capitalism is the same thing as democracy. It’s not. Where, after all, do we get our opinions? What does it say to you that Disney owns one of major news corporations in the U.S.A.? Who owns the newspaper that you or any average “American” might read before heading for work? 

The U.S.A. - as a society - worships wealth and power, and it grants enormous privileges and it renders servile obeisance to people such as Bill Gates or Donald Trump. Such unimaginable personal wealth is obscene in a world largely defined by the most horrible, by the most degrading, by the most brutalizing poverty, ignorance and suffering imaginable. 

The great tragedy of 9/11 - hideous, unthinkable - had its causes...there are reasons. Unless the United States seeks those reasons, and addresses them, it can kill Bin Laden...a hundred Bin Ladens, thousands...and yet accomplish nothing of lasting value. It will become a task of Sisyphus. There are reasons, damned good reasons, why people hate the U.S.A, and there are reasons, NOT justification, behind the wrenching tragedy of 9/11. 

We need to recognize the U.S.A. for what it is. It is imperfect, as are all human institutions. The difficult task for its citizens is to work to make it, if not perfect, the best possible place to live and an example for others to emulate. 

The U.S.A. has been guilty of horrible, tragic mistakes throughout its entire history. Unless it recognizes these errors - these deliberate acts that have unjustly harmed millions - and unless it admits to them and vows not to repeat them, it’s done. 

The U.S.A. is a country perilously adrift on a roiling sea of myths. If its people continue to think that their country is the just-right-bowl-of-oats, NUMERO UNO if you will, there is no hope of curing its ills. If its citizens don’t realize that it’s sick, then it’s just going to get sicker…it’s going to expire. People can wave all the flags they want - it won’t help. They might as well consult chicken bones. 

If you love someone, if you truly LOVE someone, you recognize it when they’re ill, and you do whatever you can to see that they get better.