weekly response

Monday, November 28, 2011

2011.11.24 Weekly Address: On Thanksgiving, Grateful for the Men and Women Who Defend Our Country

On Tastefully Silencing Narratives

By Leo Brown

In President Obama's Thanksgiving Address, which seems to have become one with this week's Weekly Address, he does not mention American Indian peoples past or present.

Why would this supposedly enlightened president ignore the shame of our favorite holiday? It would be a bit different if he were to speak exclusively and generally about blessings, family, and the like. If he were to describe his favorite stuffing recipe, I wouldn't jump down his throat for silencing the oppressed other.

President Obama wanted to avoid mentioning the genocide of our nation's first inhabitants, and he could have done so tastefully by declining to discuss history altogether. Instead, he delves right in to the same old narrative, extolling the character and fortitude of "the pilgrims, pioneers, and patriots who helped make this country what it is."

He does not mention the effort by early settlers to enslave Indians. (Only after this utterly failed did the Europeans begin to import captive Africans.) He thanks the military for protecting us today, but he does not mourn President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the forced relocation of tens of thousands of Indians from the southeastern states to Oklahoma. Nor does he question the slaughter of the American bison herds, sanctioned by the US Army as part of an effort to starve the remaining Indians onto reservations. He celebrates our "chance to determine our own destiny," but his message further silences the Indian languages and traditions that were extinguished by government-run boarding schools.

We live in a great country, and we have a lot to be thankful for. But this Thanksgiving, President Obama frittered away an opportunity to uphold one of our most powerful values: a willingness to look squarely and honestly upon our legacy. The President has exhibited this sort of courage before, both in his oration and prose, and it is always disappointing when he doesn't live up to his own standards.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

2011.08.27 Weekly Address: Coming Together to Remember

Nearly ten years have passed since the September 11th attacks. In his address this week, President Obama calls upon the nation to commemorate the anniversary by devoting a day to community service. Just as firefighters, soldiers, and regular citizens have given of themselves over the last decade, we can all contribute, whether in tiny bits or large chunks, to make our world more peaceful and just.

In his call to service, the President invokes the unity that our country found in the months following the attacks. Such a non-partisan atmosphere feels a distant memory in the rancorous political muck of today, and it is tempting to long for a revival of this spirit. How are we to become a great nation anew if we don't stop bickering?

Certainly, we would do well to bicker less. And we need not bicker purely for the sake of bickering. I agree with the President that we could spend our time more usefully, and he is right to direct us to serve our communities rather than picking our toenails or prowling Facebook.

But on this tenth anniversary of our nation's deadliest terrorist attacks, President Obama needs also to rehash the less honorable aspects of our response. As a twelve-year-old in the fall of 2001, I listened to the local radio while citizens decried Islam and its faithful as inhuman agents of evil.

"They should all be nuked," one caller demanded.

Just over a year later, an overwhelming majority of Congress voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq if Saddam Hussein refused to relinquish his weapons of mass destruction (which, needless to say, did not exist).

"America speaks with one voice," proclaimed President Bush.

This has been a decade marred by prisoners detained and tortured at Guantanamo Bay, without trial or basic human rights. Last summer, a pastor in Gainesville, Florida planned to commemorate the September 11 attacks by hosting an "International Burn a Quran Day." On a regular basis, friends and strangers bait me, hoping that as a Jew, I will lash out and rant against Muslims, indulging in a dash of xenophobic backscratching.

We have been down this road before. German-Americans during World War I and Japanese-Americans during World War II tasted the foul byproduct of our patriotism. When will we learn?

On this anniversary, we can serve our country by joining a community service project organized by an unfamiliar church, or synagogue, or mosque. We can attend a new sort of religious service, even if only once. And when an ignorant or confused citizen tosses off a racist or ethnocentric comment, we can share our view of how important diversity is to our nation's fabric. Such a response would serve our country better than the grim, stony silence that prevails all too often in the face of injustice.