Chris Matthew is currently running a commercial on MSNBC, Channel 14 Cable Network. The commercial touches a raw nerve in me as a historian and as I reflect on how far the Blacks have come in a country that is so racially segregated some 50 years back as demonstrated by the Rosa Park Experience and signs on restroom doors in the South saying “For Whites only”. Back in those days, it would have been very hard if not unthinkable to imagine a black man in the White House by the year 2008. Even though Martin Luther King made that prediction in many of his writings and speeches not too many believed the dreams could be fulfilled in our life time, but it did because of America’s “exceptionalsm”.
Chris Matthew is currently running a commercial on MSNBC, Channel 14 Cable Network. The commercial touches a raw nerve in me as a historian and as I reflect on how far the Blacks have come in a country that is so racially segregated some 50 years back as demonstrated by the Rosa Park Experience and signs on restroom doors in the South saying “For Whites only”. Back in those days, it would have been very hard if not unthinkable to imagine a black man in the White House by the year 2008. Even though Martin Luther King made that prediction in many of his writings and speeches not too many believed the dreams could be fulfilled in our life time, but it did because of America’s “exceptionalsm”.
There has always been some myth in some quarters in this country that a black man and Jew would never be President in America. Those myths are beginning to evaporate with so many Jews, men and women on the corridors of power, in American politics. The Jews were like king makers who will never be king. That was then. Those myths were shattered when Henry Kissinger became one of the most powerful Secretary of State in our life time. Madeline Albright soon followed leaving her own foot prints on the sands of History. Two Blacks, General Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice have joined the long list of Americans to hold the same position on their personal merit. So who says America would never elect a Jew born in America as President? It is only a question of time. If a black can make it to the White House, so can anyone in America regardless of race.
It is only in America where a body builder and actor and a naturalized American from Austria has emerged as the Governor of the biggest state in America. It is a country where a wrestler was once elected a Governor. It is one country on Earth where a dead man was elected a US Senator beating his closest rival arms down. Anything is possible in America. If you are good in what you do, you get recognition in America regardless of your skin color, your faith or gender. America remains the most grateful nation which never forgets her heroes and heroines. They promise to avenge the death of more than 3000 Americans on 9/11 by Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden. A white President made the promise to not let go on that promise until America bring Osama to justice. It took a black President to finally deliver on that promise even though it took nearly a decade of perseverance to do it. If America says she is with you who can be against you. It is almost coming to that. There is no other country anywhere in the world that comes anyway near America on that score. I think Chris Matthews for the most part was right to talk of America’s “exceptionalism”. Who can really disagree with that if you go back in history to see what has qualified America for that distinction?
America is truly exceptional even though a little bit crazy or overboard in one or two areas of her accomplishment as a nation. The increasing change of attitude currently sweeping the country with the passage of same sex marriage in New York is one reason to be concerned, if you are a religious freak like some of us who are scared to death on the Biblical predictions on Sodom and Gomorrah and what that could mean for America for her legalization of same sex marriage. But when you remember that the Bible itself was compiled by human beings, albeit with some divine inspiration, and if you know like I do, that anything made by man, even things made by God can be infinitely improved, you have to know that not everything you read in the Bible should be viewed as the Gospel truth. I am sure that subsequent revisions of the Bible, if allowed, would most certainly expunge or revise some of the inherent contradictions in the Bible. The point is that America is not fooled by such a pathological belief in the Bible to let the Bible dictate what it does or does not do with regard to tolerance of gays and lesbians across the board. America does not appear fazed by those predictions in the Bible about homosexuals, and that is part of what makes them so unique and different, if you ask me.
My point here is that all the predictions on Sodom and Gomorrah might have been grossly exaggerated or quoted out of context or it could just mean that the norms of society have changed from what it used to be when the Sodom and Gomorrah stuff was crafted. One empirical conclusion I draw from the Sodom and Gomorrah narrative is that gays and lesbians have always been part of the human experience and history from the get go. Even in countries like Nigeria where gays and lesbians could be stoned to death if they dare come out of the closet, rumors are all over the place that gays and lesbians are still very much a part of Nigeria. The only difference is that very few will dare talk about it like they do in America for fear of instant justice like public lynching. So those who argue that gays and lesbians are perverts who should be treated as endangered species just don’t know what they are talking about.
They are human beings like the rest of us and deserve protection by the Law. Countries like America that are finally coming to terms with reality by recognizing that gays and lesbians have as much right to live a happy and productive life like the rest of us and should therefore be protected by Law and common sense definitely have a point that cannot be wished away just because it is unpopular with a cross section of the society at this point in time.. That America will even have the courage to take that stand against the backdrop of stiff opposition from much of the world is an act of courage that differentiates America from the rest of the world. What is being celebrated this weekend nation-wide is not just America’s independence but that uniqueness as one nation under God, indivisible, united and strong with justice for all and life more abundant
Even though Americans say “In God we trust” on their national Currency, America is one country that frequently challenges old assumptions about God and religion thru her advancement of Science. The one thing America has not succeeded in doing so far is manufacturing blood to create a human being. They have done far more than any country in this universe to advance the course of Science and they have done it in a way that magnify than diminish God because if ordinary human can perform all the feats so far credited to America, just imagine how much more God is able to do as the creator of man. Cloning and stem cell research, which were ridiculed as tempting God when we first heard of them, some years back, are today fast becoming an integral part of Science paving the way for cure to Cancer and some of the most terrible diseases that have plagued the human race for years. What does the world really expect from a country that leads the rest of the world in Science Research and a country that currently dominates close to 75% of all Nobel Peace awards in Oslo, Norway
America has no choice than to continue to lead in every aspect of human endeavor and that is what she has been doing with passion and with remarkable success, I might add. I watch Chris Matthews point every night to a mug shot of the White House deliberately placed behind his image on screen and telling anybody who will listen why America is so uniquely different from the rest of the world. “Just look at where Obama is today” is his constant refrain and he is exactly right on that.
Obama is in the White House not as a lawn mower, a cloakroom attendant a janitor or messenger or a cook or steward like generations of black people before him. He is there as the current landlord of the White House. Obama is there as the President of the United States and the Leader of the Free World. Only in America is that amazing transformation possible for a member of the black race whose forefathers have been enslaved for so long and who for once in a life time has proved to everybody in America you could be all you want to be in America, if you truly believe in yourself and if you work hard enough.
I cannot think of a better time to eulogize this unique attribute of America than a date set apart for the celebration of America’s independence. I am talking of July 4, every year. It is always hard for me to imagine that America like poor Nigeria was once a colony of Great Britain. America has turned that historical fact around by not just catching up with Britain but surpassing Britain with every index of military power and economic development.
The British pride themselves on their history like no other nation in the world, but they are now under no illusion that America has turned the corner on them. The best they now do, as a matter of state policy, is to always be on the same side with America while still taking some understandable pride in the fact that America was once their colony just like all parents want to see their own children exceed their own record of achievement and success if at all possible. Great Britain now understands that America doing far better than Britain is something they can live with. Most parents in fact pray for their children to excel and succeed. Great Britain is therefore proud to always associate with America not only as their traditional ally, but as a senior partner. They relied heavily on America in their Falkland Islands war with Argentina. America offered Britain the winning edge in that war and it worked out very well for Britain.
The 20th century certainly belongs to America and so is the 21st and I predict the 22nd century as well because America knows she has to remain on the cutting edge of history by ensuring that America unlike other great empires before her does not fall . Once upon a time we used to hear of the Greek, the Ottoman Turk, and Roman Empires, the Egyptian Empire, the Chinese Empire, the Russian Empire, the Ethiopian Empire the Persian Empire, the Japanese Empire the Iranian Empire and the British Empire on which the sun never sets. All those Empires are now history, sad to say.
One of the greatest lessons America would appear to have learnt is the fact that Empires rise and fall but America seems determined to maintain her superiority edge by laying a solid foundation not just for today but for another 100 years or more. It is therefore not for fun that America sees herself not only as a microcosm of the world but as the preeminent leader of that Universe and the only surviving super power.
That is why every sport that is played in America is usually classified as world class because nobody does it better. I have traveled quite a bit around the world back in my days in the public service of Nigeria. I can say without any fear of contradiction that America tops the list in every aspect of development. That is why America has become a Mecca to the rest of the world. America despite her few shortcomings, is where everybody wants to be. If you can make it in America, you can make it anywhere in the world because America has become the gold standard for measuring progress and economic development around the globe.
The point that I must not leave un addressed before I end this write up is how America was able to achieve this feat. You have to give the credit first and foremost to the America’s founding fathers who crafted the American Constitution which has become the 8th wonder of the world. The Constitution has had only 27 amendments in close to its 250 years of existence. It is so unique and original in what it does and how it does it. The concept of the Electoral College which gives California, New York, Florida and Illinois, New Jersey the biggest number of Electoral College votes than the other states in the Union acknowledges the principle of one man one vote in American system of Government.
The same Constitution has treated every state in the Union as being equal when it comes to how many senators each state, big or small, is assigned. California with its more than 36 million people has only 2 senators while Wyoming with its 400,000 population and other smaller states like Vermont and Hawaii also have the same number The American Constitution truly makes America unique Nigeria and few other countries around the world have tried to model their own system of Government after the American system but few of them have enjoyed the same level of stability that America has witnessed since her independence because they lack the discipline and the maturity that American founding fathers and the generations coming after them have been blessed with in making the Constitution work for America.
America has therefore become the best experiment in peoples’ Government the world has known and that is not likely to change any time soon even though the two major parties in America, the Republicans and the Democrats are often at logger heads but when it comes to serving the best interest of America, they have always found a way to deliver on that at the last minute regardless of how far apart they are going forward. That again is America’s “exceptionalism” that Chris Matthew talks so much about.
I say Happy Anniversary to all Americans and wish you all many happy returns of July 4th.
I rest my case.
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