Anti-American feeling is an attack on all of us

Chris Cole is the founder of Cross Rhythms Plymouth community radio station. Listen to his Cross Rhythms Experience programmes at 96.3FM or online at www.crossrhythms.co.uk/plymouth

He recently wrote the following article in a free local newspaper and I was so impressed with it that I felt I would like to share it with you;

Back in February, I commented in this column on President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony, noting the almost religious zeal with which he had been welcomed by millions of Americans, and comparing his imperfect humanity with the only perfect Man who ever lived, Jesus Christ.

Whilst that piece was in no way detrimental to or critical of Americans or the American way of life, I have recently been pondering on the amount of anti-American feeling that seems to be in our culture, and especially in Europe.

This anti-American feeling occasionally borders on racism in my opinion, and in some extreme cases actual hatred expressed towards America, which would be strongly opposed by our media were it aimed at just about any other nation.

One of the most severe examples I have seen was a call for the killing of any Americans, anywhere. The source of that call does not really matter, but it provoked a response from Peter Ferrara, associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law in North Virginia. It was published by National Review on September 25th, 2001.

For me, his article recognizes that in fact, we are all children of God who created us, and to harm one of us is to harm all of us. Here is that article:

"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

"An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

"An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

"An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

"An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness...,

"An American is generous.....Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

"When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

"As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

"The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

"Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

"So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American"

Whilst we may not agree with everything Peter Ferrara wrote, I think we can all agree that in essence his words echo the words of Jesus Christ "Love your neighbour as yourself" - before we criticise any nation, Western, Middle-Eastern or otherwise, we need to go deeper than the shallow understanding we sometimes glean from our own culture, and think of them as people, like us, and try to imagine walking in their shoes.

Then we may be able to love them first, and then we may have the right and ability to offer a positive criticism and not a shallow cynicism that derides a whole 'people group' in one broad sweep of poorly informed opinion.

The above picture was taken in 1918 and shows 18,000 soldiers artistically recreating The Statue of Liberty on their parade ground. Scroll down through my earlier postings to read the full story of this phenominal feat, which I uploaded on 10th March 2009 under my "Pictures" Label, and you will be able to zoom in for a close up look. For some inexplicable reason the same facility does not appear to work on this latest upload.