The first time my wife came to visit the United States was during the 1996 Democratic convention. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, was so taken with the United States -- how positive and open everyone seemed. And she looked at Bill Clinton speaking during his acceptance speech and was convinced that this was a land of real enlightenment. She and I got engaged and she moved here two years later.
For obvious reasons, her views of the U.S. political scene soon turned sour. George Bush became president, and then 9/11 amped up anti-Arab sentiment. It's been really painful to see my wife become so disillusioned and hurt by the attitude of so many ignorant people in this country. After she got her citizenship, she proudly voted for John Kerry, and was so hopeful on election day, only to be emotionally crushed by a defeat brought on in large part by fear, negativity and bigotry. My wife's view of the United States is not what it once was, and I have to admit that it's been really hard to defend the electoral will of my country for the last 8 years.
So I was watching Colin Powell's endorsement on Meet the Press, and was already impressed with his even-handed, incredibly persuasive argument for the candidacy of Barack Obama. Then, after he had already sufficiently made his case, he went a step further, becoming noticeably more emotional when he addressed assertions that Obama is Muslim ...
Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
As he recounted with great earnestness the example of a Muslim-American soldier who died in Iraq, my eyes welled up. I haven't heard any major political figure come to the defense of Muslim Americans during all of this period, not even Barack Obama. (Of course if Obama did this, it would probably be politically fatal.)
Think about that crazy woman at McCain's rally -- the one who said that she thinks Barack Obama is an Arab, and McCain had to grab the microphone from her hand to protect his campaign from being associated with a smear like this. So why is it that this comment was considered a smear? Why did John McCain come to Barack Obama's "defense" by saying "No ma'am ... he's a decent family man"?
It just shows how extreme and twisted our standards have become when we're giving credit to John McCain for knocking back suggestions that someone is a Muslim. My wife doesn't even want her father, a devout Muslim, to come visit the US, because she's afraid he'll be detained at the airport. And it's hard to argue with her, because she herself was detained on two separate occasions before she got her U.S. passport. It was humiliating for her, and it was wrong.
My wife has just about given up on American politics, and I don't blame her, but I was really encouraged by Colin Powell's appearance on Meet the Press. Not only was it a powerful and effective endorsement of Barack Obama, but it was also an overdue, high–profile repudiation of the cultural bigotry against Arabs and Muslims that has become far too tolerated in the United States. I read some negative comments here about Colin Powell's role in the Bush administration, and he certainly is not beyond reproach. But I really believe that he deserves enormous credit for his eloquent and necessary statement about Muslims, culture, and America.
By having the wisdom and courage to say it, he made our country and our world a little better.
Comments are closed on this story.