What constitutes a real American?

What constitutes a real American?

November 8, 2001

Straight Talk
By Muriel Sluyter

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

During the war in which the Russians invaded Afghanistan, young Dana Rohrabacher, now a California congressman, joined a mujahideen unit fighting in the general area of Jalalabad.

He says, "We at one point in that march came across a camp of tents. They were white tents and you could see them in the distance, and I was told at that point that I must not speak English for at least another three hours, because the people in those tents were Saudi Arabians under a crazy commander named Bin Laden, and that bin Laden was so crazy he wanted to kill Americans as much as he wanted to kill Russians. Thus, I must keep my mouth shut or we would be attacked by those forces under bin Laden."

Rohrabacher says he was bearded at the time, looked like the others in his unit and did precisely as he was told, keeping his mouth shut. That’s how he lived long enough to become a congressman. Interesting, huh?

Here’s another interesting story: Zewdalem Kebede, an immigrant from Ethiopia, goes to San Diego State University. On Sept. 22 of this year, he was studying in the school library, in which there were several Saudi Arabian students. They were speaking Arabic.

Mr. Kebede says, "They started talking about the Sept. 11 action, and with that action they were very pleased. They were happy." Since he speaks fluent Arabic and understood everything they were saying, he interrupted their conversation, in Arabic, to avoid embarrassing them in front of other students.

"Guys, what you are talking about is unfair. How do you feel happy when those five- to 6,000 people are buried in two or three buildings? You are proud. You should have to feel shame."

A Saudi student responded angrily in English, accusing Kebede of objecting to their speaking in Arabic. Since no one else present spoke Arabic, it was an easy accusation to make.

Thirty minutes late, campus police came to get Mr. Kebede. A complaint had been filed against him by the Saudi students. They had charged him with being verbally abusive.

Furious, Mr. Kebede told his story in one of this classes. As a result, the university dropped the charges, but sent him a letter threatening disciplinary action. It said, "You are admonished to conduct yourself as a responsible member of the campus community in the future."

Mr. Kebede says all he was guilty of was loving his new country. "Is that a crime?" he asked.

Now to Arizona. When Arizona State removed an American flag from the cafeteria in order to avoid offending international students, an immigrant from Syria, Oubai Shahbandar introduced a bill in the student senate to have it returned. The bill was defeated by students, but when other adults of Arizona heard of the school’s action, they turned on the heat. Alumni threatened to pull financial support and the school caved. The flag went back up in the cafeteria.

These two young immigrants showed their schools’ authorities what it means to be real Americans. Perhaps our schools should be run by new immigrants, who have lived where almost everything is tenuous, even life itself. They could make our colleges something of which Americans could be proud once again, rather than the hotbeds of political activity.

Our inexperienced young people would be taught by dedicated Americans, those who know what life is like without the constitutional protections we enjoy. In such an environment, they could learn what constitutes a real American.