Identity

Identity
Considering what face America turns to the world

November 20, 2001

This Thanksgiving, when Americans gather around their tables and their television sets, many of them will be more thankful than ever before that their ancestors chose this place. Most of us will be glad to be Americans, and those of us who live far from the coasts and the big cities will be glad for that margin of safety. We are beginning to understand that death can arrive through the mail or on a scheduled airline flight, seemingly randomly, but we also understand that the odds still favor us. We have a lot for which to give thanks.

Perhaps this Thanksgiving should also be a day dedicated to taking a realistic look at ourselves.

There is no excuse for the actions of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida; that agenda is one that can never be reconciled with ours. But the thousands and perhaps millions of other Muslims who resent or even hate the United States have a very different view of this country than we do from within.

Much of that can be blamed on television and movies, which often offer unrealistic depictions of American life. Given our taste in movies, perhaps some of those Muslims can be forgiven for believing that we might consider terrorism a viable way for solving differences, when we can take time off from our lives of greed and sexual profligacy.

Affluence is another touchy subject. Only the poorest among us lack cars and television sets. Although we share generously, we consume a disproportionate amount of the world’s resources, and we take that consumption for granted. Our sense of entitlement must be mind-boggling to those billions who have so little.

Religion and democracy are also points of confusion. Citizens of religious states must surely doubt that it is really possible to legislate morality by a majority vote, and the topics that provoke the most media attention seem to confirm that America is not a moral place.

At least that is how it looks from the outside, because we have allowed ourselves to be portrayed in that way.

In a recent speech, the president told the story of a little girl to whom our enemies had been described as people who did not know us. She responded that we should just tell them all our names. That is an easy point to forget during wartime. We have names, and so do they. The solution will not be so simple as introducing ourselves, but common understanding is necessary for peace. We need to do a far better job of showing the world who we really are: good, compassionate people who are determined to stand up for their own beliefs.

An alien who landed this week would believe that we show our gratitude for multiple blessings by indulging in gluttony and hours of passive television-watching. There is a great deal more to it than that. America is more than a place of conspicuous consumption and world domination. Changing that image will involve more than dropping a few million packaged meals and preventing terrorists from wreaking havoc throughout the whole world.

Thanksgiving is a good place to start, because it is a holiday intended to highlight positive aspects of American history: Cooperation during times of adversity, and gratitude for blessings rather than bitterness over scarcity. That face of America is a good one to show the world right now.