On Bigotry and Being American

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

I am proud to call myself an American.

I believe in American ideals like equality, liberty, freedom of speech, and the right to keep and bear arms. I grant that every American has the right to believe and say what they want. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion. I also believe in radical, progressive ideals like our society taxing the rich their fair share as well as supporting care of the elderly, the poor, and the sick.

Have you read Grapes of Wrath? The story matters and it matters even more today. As a country we are fighting the same men who stole and killed during the Great Depression, when the Grapes of Wrath is set. In chapter 29 there is a quote about men and horses. If a man had a team of horses that plowed and cultivated his land he wouldn’t think of turning those horses out to starve when they weren’t working. But corporations will do that to men. Because banks and corporations live and breathe profits. It is all about the bottom line, the profit margin, and none of it concerns itself with ethical or moral decency.

And why would banks and big business care about ethical and moral dilemmas? Wells Fargo killed a little girl recently. It was in the news. How do you properly put a corporation on the stand and accuse them of murder for profit? You don’t; people have to be accused of committing crimes. People, however, are content to hide behind corporate memos. Things need to change. Things must change.

In Italy and other countries the crimes of banks and corporations have been cause for rioting in the streets. In Iceland bankers were jailed for contributing to the financial crisis.

I’m sorry but I’m from Bakersfield. If you kill someone’s child, or steal someone’s horse then there is a good chance you’ll find yourself on the wrong end of a noose---and rightfully so!

My great-grandmother was Irene Howard. She walked the Trail of Tears when she was three. According to family stories, Irena began the trip with her mother and father. She ended the trip with her father and stepmother. My great-grandfather was a Native American who fought in the Civil War to gain “white status” which would allow him to legally marry my great-grandmother. (That is actually what people called it, as far as I know.) It also allowed him to own land and granted his family other rights that we take for granted. They had a daughter, Ada Plummer, and she had a daughter---my grandmother Rose. Grandma Rose was a seamstress when time allowed. She had a good phone voice, though, so for work she was often employed doing some manner of telephone customer service. My grandfather---he died when I was three---was sort of a farmer’s hand. He was Irish according to my mother, though his last name is English. My mother told me that they moved a lot when she was young because picking strawberries and the like was transient employment. Even in California, with its extended growing season, not all crops are ready for picking at the same time. After my mother was born my grandparents had three boys: my Uncle Jim, Uncle Paul, and Uncle Mike. My grandfather Lloyd would take the three boys when they didn’t have school and they would all go out into the fields to work.

I’m not sure if you needed to know all of that, actually. But I think knowledge can lead to understanding so maybe you did need to know it.

I grew up in a city in California but the city thought it was a small, Southern town. We had the rodeo come through every year. People wore mostly jeans and plaid shirts. You made tea on the roof and lemonade with lemons.

Being an American takes a great deal of courage. Being an American means a deep generosity of spirit that brings to mind the great heroics of legends and idols.

To quote Arjun Sethi: This country's commitment to equality - and to the promise of a nation that is not just characterized by diversity but also defined by it - is what drives immigrants here and what makes the United States the envy of the world; it's what led so many immigrants to cross miles and oceans and leave behind more than most of us can imagine.

Bigotry is deeply un-American.