Who do you want the world to see when they see an American?
Patriot at the Seattle Anti-War Protest in September
All this war talk has me thinking about America. Not just about the politics and the future, but about what it means to be an American and how the rest of the world perceives us. This issue has pretty deep resonance around my house because one of us isn't an American citizen, and lately, doesn't really want to become one. The idea of being an American is losing its luster.
I've served for more than 20 years as a sort of guerilla diplomat. For over 20 years I've explained America to people outside of the US. I've sat in bars and restaurants and on beaches and at bus stops and in train cars all over the world and discussed America with the people I've met. I've been a kitchen table ambassador since I was 16 years old.
I like to think that I've become good at my job in the volunteer diplomatic corps as the years have gone by. I wasn't always. I headed out as an exchange student in the summer of 1979 with little idea about what the world looked like beyond the California suburbs. But I was a big reader and something of a language nerd, so I had a promising future. And I've learned a lot since the time I booked a flight to Karachi without even knowing that it's in a Muslim country.
I've learned that it's possible to apologize for the acts of our nation without taking the blame for them. It's important to state clearly and unequivocally that we don't all blindly agree with the actions of the men in Washington. But it's useful to have some facts at your fingertips when you're doing so.
If you want to explain how we have come to such a crucial juncture, it's important to understand what happened during the 2000 elections. It's possible that your foreign friends who are railing against George W. Bush don't know that he didn't get the popular vote. It's also possible that your non-American friends don't know that every Congressperson who voted against war on Iraq was reelected in the mid-term elections. It's possible that while they might think the president has a sweeping nationwide mandate, they don't know that only 39% of Americans voted in the midterm election, and that that's up about 3% from the presidential elections of 2000. And for crying out loud, vote. You might have no explanation for low voter turn out, but if you didn't vote, you helped get us where we are today. It's your job to know and do these things so that when you're sitting in kitchens and bus stations from Vietnam to Vienna, you can tell the person sitting next to you that no, not all Americans are like THAT.
There's more you're responsible for in this difficult time. You're responsible for knowing about the civic workings of the place to which you've traveled. If you're headed to a country, you ought to be able to name the leader of your chosen destination. Why? Because the world thinks that we Americans don't care about other governments, how they work, and who they lead. Would it kill you to browse the headlines of a country's English language papers before you step on an airplane? And speaking of the English language, it's just plain good manners to learn how to say please and thank you, hello and goodbye, in the tongue of the country in which you find yourself. While you're at it, it's not a bad move to learn to say, "I'm sorry, I don't speak your language."
Why do you need to know all that stuff when you're just going to drink Ouzo and see the ruins? Because you're the real US ambassadors. I've found people surprisingly open and indulgent when you meet face to face. Imagine yourself discussing the elections with a young Egyptian man on a street corner in Cairo. You've told him what happened and how you feel about it. Maybe you've been able to ask him a few questions about his government and how it works. And then you thank him for his time and say goodbye - in his language. What is he going to think about Americans after that?
President George W. Bush had never been out of the United States before he was elected to office. Now, I've been lucky to travel so much. But you needn't leave the US to serve as a kitchen table ambassador. The man driving the taxi from the airport, where's he from? The woman next to you at the doctor's office? The staff at the restaurant?
It's America and one of the great things about it is that we're from everywhere. There are accents and flavors and stories beyond our dreams right next door. This makes it easy, because most of the people you meet here are those who really want to be here. But we can still act with kindness and interest in the homelands of our neighbors. Why bother when they're already here? Because they have friends and family who might come to visit. They may go back to their home countries some day. What do we want them saying about us? Do we want them to say that Americans are just as bad as they've always imagined, selfish and materialistic and ignorant and superior? Or do we want them to think of us as curious and kind, as people with jobs and families and hearts?
My path to the role of ambassador was not easy. I started to travel extensively during the Reagan years, the "we start bombing in five minutes" years. I had a lot of explaining to do. Things changed for the better during the 90's and I had learned to love my country, really love it, in spite of its many flaws. Now that it's the bad old days all over again, it's especially difficult to serve as a defacto ambassador. In the face of today's America, the best thing I can think to do is to be a good American. Not one that's naïve and exploitive and aggressive, but one that is respectful and inquisitive and honest. I can try to be the kind of American that I want the world to see as typical. Sure, I want to snap a bunch of photos and take home silly souvenirs in the shape of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But how much more rewarding would it be to leave something behind? The memory of an American who sat in the kitchen, drinking coffee and trading stories not just about Americans, but about life in the world as a whole. We can make ourselves proud to be American again. And we can inspire others to be proud to have known us.
Learn more about State Representative Jim McDermott, a typical American who's making us proud right here in Washington state.
