My Dear Fellow Immigrants, Attention! It's July 4th!
You needed the US then, the US needs you NOW!
Man is a ‘work in progress’ by Nature. It does its work through a process called evolution. Evolution is the invisible force, just like gravity. It is making us and other millions of species on earth! If we look back in our history of modern man for 60,000 years, we can observe it. Now our evolution is happening at a very rapid pace in the brain rather than in the body. Neurons are at the forefront of survival and evolution of man.
Every human being has a unique place on the broad spectrum of evolution. It is just like the colors on the visible light spectrum of light, with an increasing wavelength from least to the most. What parameter can we use to arrange all the humans in one spectrum? We may come up with many based on our background and intellectual ability. But there is a simple parameter that is very useful to identify every human being’s place on the spectrum — decent! ‘Decent’ is used conforming to the recognized standard of propriety, good taste, modesty, etc., as in behavior or speech. Besides, it is used for respectable, worthy, fair, kind, obliging, generous, appropriate. But a ‘Decent Human ‘means a civilized person who symbolizes all positive traits of a human being.
“…., there are two races of men in the world, but only these two- the ‘race’ of the decent man and the ‘race ‘of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of ‘pure race.’ This is the most sincere observation of Dr. Viktor E. Frankel, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist, who spent four years in Nazi death camps, as an inmate. “Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths, where you find the mixture of good and evil,” he writes in his book Man’s Search for Meaning.
The founding father of the United States of America and the millions of men and women of this nation enhanced human experiences in all facets of human activity. They made this country a ‘decent one.’
I had the privilege to visit this country and take a bus ride on July 4th, 1986, in New York as a student visitor from Paris. I saved the blue bus ticket as a souvenir. During that visit, I appreciated how big, how well-developed, how civilized the United States is. Later, I immigrated to the US as a scientist with my wife and daughter. Like many immigrants, we appreciated the value of the ‘American Dream’ and had our share of it. In the peaceful, nurturing, prosperous, and ‘decent’ environment provided by the US, we lived for the following 32 years. Today my wife is a well-established psychiatrist in New York with good local social standing, my daughter and son in law are physicians at Harvard Medical system, and my son is entering medical school. The story could be similar or better for many legal immigrants working sincerely.
Every immigrant is immensely indebted to this country. Every immigrant has a great responsibility to keep the USA as a ‘decent country.’ Today America appears to be slipping away from that ‘decent ‘state. It is being attacked on three fronts — Coronavirus pandemic, its negative impact on the economy, anti-establishment forces, simultaneously.
So I call upon all my fellow legal immigrants to pause and reflect the time since we stood in lines to get the USA till today. Then take action of your choice in a positive direction, however small it may be. If not, the slippery slope status of the USA today will slide down further. Soon our children have to find another ‘America,’ like us when we were in our native countries.
There are so many examples of the destruction of great civilized countries in history. One of the examples I am aware of the great achievement of a man disappearing in history is symbolized by the 5th century Nalanda University in present-day India. It got ‘significant fame, prestige and relevance during ancient times, and rose to legendary status’ and flourished for seven centuries till it was destroyed by a marauding Turkish force led by Bakhtiyar Khalji in 1193. Similar examples from the Far East, China, the Middle East, Greece, and other places can be seen in history.
Today the USA is at the forefront of the modern civilization of man. It has provided an opportunity for some 50 living cultures to come together and evolve. If it is destroyed, the world is going to lose a place of hope and have to reinvent the wheel.
The United States needs the support of immigrants, also, to resist the attacks and revitalize itself. As immigrants, we benefitted more than the others. So our responsibility to save it from the deterioration also should be of the same proportion. The vast majority of immigrants are silently engaged in nation-building activity. But some arrogant immigrants are trying to be a part of the division.
If you do not like President Trump, first try to remove the ‘little Trump’ — everything that is bad about Trump, in you. If millions remove the ‘little Trump’ in them, then the country will be a far better place to live than just removing one Trump from White House. If democrats forgot that democracy works based on the majority but not on the on vote bank politics, let them realize it politically, like the Indian National congress realized in India
As immigrants, we did not come to the United States to become a minority and fight with the majority. We came here with a great appreciation of what the majority has done for Humanity.
Therefore, I urge all fellow immigrants to help the United States to be a better place for all. How?
