A Step from Constitution to Sabotage
OP-ED
One of my students asked me the other day how far it might be from Democracy to Vandalism. I couldn’t quite get what the kid was trying to ask, and then I realized she meant the American Constitution and today’s picture of America’s troubled streets. I spent 20 years of my life in America and I still remember the taste of that citizenship oath in my mouth, when I solemnly promised the Stars and Stripes that I would support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States. My oath to the Old Glory still stands true, and I am ready to defend the Republic for which it stands. Yet, now I’m told that the distance is not very big between the American Constitution and sabotage against it. I still believe that America is one of the greatest nations in the world, absolutely ready to continue holding up our beloved Star Spangled Banner.
What kills me right now is the content of my student’s almost quintessential question. And if I cannot pluck enough courage to respond to the question with truth and dignity, I swear to God I will quit teaching the History and the Constitution of the United States of America, but I will never allow myself to be frustrated by the Main Law of the Land as wisely written and exercised as it has been up until now, including the famous Bill of Rights.
Could the precious fruits of the 400-year-old struggle for liberty of thought, freedom of speech and pursuit of happiness be annihilated overnight? Will the consent-of-the-governed stop meaning what it has always meant? I will never believe in this sinister presumption! I will never accept the premature Russian and Chinese inferences which gloat over the fleeting misfortunes of this well-weathered western nation hinting at its losing its world leadership and giving up its unaltered championship in making the world a better place to live.
Yes, my dear students, America is in serious trouble today, but it has historically been worse, like the division of the country into the North Union and the Southern Confederation. Racism? Well, the riots, arsons and violence witnessed in the American open air today certainly smell like a racial outburst, but racism also has to be philosophically interpreted so that we do not succumb to unfair momentary surmises, thus avoiding further exacerbation of public sentiments. A little over a half century ago, this amazing country overcame the racial misery, when blacks and whites, voraciously taking in the I-have-a-dream oratory, gave a word to each other that they would never again give an impetus to another wave of segregation. The solemn word, as it seems, is too young for easily making way into the hearts and minds of the American citizenry.
America still has work to do. The problem is not over. America needs time. I believe in the recent words of my truly honest American friend that nothing would have happened if the poor guy were white. Nobody would even have noticed another death in the country of 350 million people. This conclusion leans toward the main statement of the day: will America ever turn into a nation which does not discern between blacks and whites, Hispanics and WASPs, Yankee doodles and southern drawlers?
And another crucial question: would he have died if the victim of the police incaution had been white? Yes, he would! Some of us tend to deliberate on the question as to whether the infamous American racism is a one-way street. Judging by the current scenes in the raging American urban areas, the African-American part of the country’s population continues to persistently maintain that the historical conflict between the two shades of human skin is far from over.
So where are we heading? I cannot think of a simpler response to this painful historical question: If the blacks and whites of America do not mix on a natural basis and do not earnestly start showing the best human intentions to each other, the greatest geopolitical and cultural experiment of all time will go bust.
Op-Ed by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: Adam Berry/Getty Images