THOUGHTS ON THE 4TH OF JULY

As many of you who read this blog know, I spent most of the first 16 years of my life in Brazil. It wasn’t until I was in my early 40s that I realized that, culturally, I am deeply Brazilian.  Although I was born in the U.S. (left when I was 2 months old), looking back on my re-arrival in the U.S. in my teens, I have come to understand myself as essentially a first-generation immigrant to this country. It took me years, but eventually an authentic U.S. identity was shaped so that I am comfortable socially and culturally in this society.  However, I must admit that my greater allegiance is to Brazil, my “heart country.”  Whenever I go there, I feel relaxed and at-home in ways that I never feel in the U.S.

I am also very critical of the U.S. role as empire in the world. Schools, the media, and religion in this country teach and support and even demand allegiance to a mythology of U.S. exceptionalism and benevolence that any objective observer will clearly see is patently false. Contrary to the myth, the U.S. has done much more harm than good in the world.  In contrast to most U.S. citizens, people from other countries readily recognize and acknowledge this fact. While I am critical of the U.S., I also desire for this, my “birth country,” to be better than it is, to be the best that it can be.  Something along the lines of a country as envisioned and described in statements and official documents promulgated by Pope Francis would be ideal.

And so, on the 4^th of July, while I enjoy the fireworks, I feel no great patriotic enthusiasm, and no U.S. flag waves in the front of my house or off my car. (I say “U.S. flag,” not “American flag,” because the latter is a misnomer.  America includes everything from the northern reaches of Canada and Alaska to the most southern tip of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina.) Some may consider me unpatriotic and, as I’ve said, I hold no strongly felt allegiance to the U.S. (The present moment in which we are witnessing the development of an entrenched fascism in this country – as well as in my heart country of Brazil - it is especially difficult.)  On the other hand though, being honest about the strengths AND the weaknesses of a nation, not being taken in by the myth but being willing to challenge the faults and strive for the nation to be the best it can – perhaps that is the greatest form of patriotism. 

Happy 4^th!