What Is America?
photo by unit 5
There are approximately 400,000,000 people in America and I’m definite that every single one has their own definition of what America is. Like everything else in America, her meaning is illusive because by nature, America is an idea that when implemented, she materializes in different forms. If I am pressed to give a description or a definition of what America is, I will be compelled to give an anecdote instead of a sentence or two.
So what is America?
I was born in the Philippines and grew up in Chicago. As a teacher, I’ve taught all levels and all subjects. This year I had the privelage of teaching United States History to eight graders. Here’s a sample demographics of my students: a girl whose parents are white and black, a boy who’s white but he and his parents just arrived from the war torn country of Albania a few years ago, a girl from Bangladesh who wears a headscarf, an Iraqi boy who came to the United State after the first Gulf War, a Pakistani boy and an Indian girl, a Filipino girl who immigrated 3 years ago, a boy whose parents are from Haiti, and African-American boy who is being raised by his grandparents, an African boy from the refugee camps of Congo, a Mexican-American boy whose family has been in the United States longer than any of us can remember, a Mexican girl whose family just arrived to Chicago, a boy who was born in India but his parents are from Somalia and whose father now works for the Department of Homeland Security. Obviously, I have more students but for the sake of space, I’ll stop here.
In my classroom of a very diverse student population, American History was taught by a Filipino-American teacher. Here we learned that America is the land of freedom, justice, and opportunity. We also learned that America is a land of immigrants, and that somehow, sometime, we all came from somewhere.
We learned that our experience is no different from the Irish, German, and Italian immigrants from the 1900s. In this classroom of multi-linguals where ENGLISH is the MODE of INSTRUCTION, we learned that regardless of your race, status and enthnic background, you have a chance to make it big. Others might have a better chance and you may face great obstacles but still, you have a chance.
When asked the question, my students eagerly answered that America is free speech, making lots of money, being independent, voting without the fear of death, dissenting without imprisonment, and so on and so forth. And when the question was thrown back at me, which it usually does, I said to them that America is US. I explained that we are all a product of America’s past and in turn we will shape America’s future. Therefore, the very essence and definition of America is all of our collective experience.
No doubt that in the future, the face of America will change and as long as Lady Liberty continues to say, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door,” America will continue to evolve but the ideals she holds will remain constant.
Now some my argue that what I’ve described here is not America. Fine.
If this is not America, then one can at least concede that the above description is the Promise of America.
