Note - this was originally published in the Isolate M Newsletter, (Mensa) in 2020 during the Pandemic.
My suitcase to me. It wonders what it has done to deserve such neglect! I had to explain to my little red case it is not at fault. How do you explain a pandemic to a suitcase, let alone a student, or a grown-up? The world is sick, my inanimate friend. It will get better, eventually. Then my Ittle buddy, you will find yourself tucked into the overhead compartments, trading stories of crazy owners with other little buddies as we all fly off to other lands. You
will get to Iceland, I promise. Note - I FINALLY got to Iceland - it was so worth the wait.
That is, if there is still a country left who will let the Americans in. I am not so sure.
My mom is afraid to watch the news and find out America is not here anymore. I
am afraid no country will let us in if the election goes south in November. My
co-workers want life to be as it was, while my son and other people of colour
wonder if we will finally heal - or will things get drastically worse.
One day we watched in horror the events, caught so vividly on camera, of the death of George Floyd. Only a few days later there were other images - of astronauts, on an American ship, off to the International SpaceStation. I know it sounds like a weird connection, but I shall explain. When I was a kid, all the people in mission control were men - white men with crewcuts. Once in a long, long while you might see a woman, in the background, and if you looked very carefully, for a long period of time, you might even see a man of color - maybe. The crew Dragon launched was different - there were women in charge and people of colour everywhere - a true cross section of what America is supposed to be.
NASA has largely represented the best of this country. When we decided to go to the
moon in the 1960's with far less computer power than we have in our
phones - we did it. We were the envy of the world. Science ruled, adventure
ruled, our imaginations were limitless. We all watched as if, by magic, Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took those first small steps for man.
We went from "one small step" to "I can't breathe." What happened?
What happened to the American spirit? This is the country that walked on another
world. The polio vaccine was developed in the US, and 40% of all Nobel Prize
winners - in history - are American. We wanted to get these done - and we found
the will to do it.
Before we even consider all the changes that need to be made to fight racism in America,
we need to want to fight it and the will not to tolerate it anymore. If travel
teaches you nothing else, it teaches you our commonalities far outweigh our
differences. Before we can even address the inequalities in our country, we
must change the way we think. You can go to so many countries with a smile, a
clean pair of jeans, and the willingness to learn from those around you. Most
Americans have visited no more than 12 states. I know people who don't have
passports - and they live on the Canadian border!
When I was a child there was a "see America first" campaign. We were encouraged as
citizens to stop going overseas and see our own country before we went anywhere
else. My parents, immigrants that they were, took this very seriously. I visited 40 of the 50 states before I set foot in high school.
I remember when I moved to Florida. It was more of a culture shock to live in Florida than it was to live on Guam, where only 13% of the people are white. Florida!
Not wanting at all to make light of a terrible and complicated problem, but people need to get out more. They need to learn words in a different language, learn about holidays and
religions not your own, at least try to get out of your comfort zone and see how other people live. It is hard to hate people if you know them.
It is hard to hate the Muslims down block when youwere at Iftar dinner the night before. It is hard to hate the people of colour across the street when they share their pool with you on a hot summer day. Too many of us live in tiny little bubbles where we are only comfortable with our own kind.
Yes, it was easier to walk on the moon than it will be to deal with racial prejudice.
Technology is logical - people are not. Still, we have to try.
So when the travel restrictions are over, drive to a different region of the US - somewhere
you have never seen. Hop on a plane to a country where you are the minority and
see how it feels. Be the lookee, not the looker. Gandhi told us to be the change we wish to see in the world.
We need to choose, freely and openly, to be the nation of "one small step" and no longer the nation of "I can't breathe."
