New Americans

It was a sunny Wednesday in Oakland. I was killing time between going hither and thither, and found myself reading the New York Times and drinking tea in a downtown Starbucks- not a usual activity of mine, but a pleasant change. I really should start reading the actual newspaper more. Anyway, I was reading about the attempted car bombing in NYC and the background story on Faisal Shahzad. I realize now that, as I was reading, I was sadly detached from it all, even apathetic. This sort of thing is rare, but to be expected. Depressing, but why dwell on it? I admit- after the post-election disappointment, the two failed/failing wars in the Mid-East, and the economic situation at home, I have pretty much withdrawn interest from politics and national news. I am not proud of it, but I have been trying to make a difference in my own small way, in my own small life without paying much attention to the increasingly grim big picture. Hence I read about Shahzad's life, his education, jobs, his citizenship ceremony, without much vigor or curiosity. Leaving my newspaper for the next customer, I stepped outside, ready to replace the whole thing with a more self-absorbed line of thought.

My attempt to disregard world events was interrupted by a cheerful commotion outside the Paramount Theatre. There were families stepping outside into the sunshine, taking pictures, smiling, laughing and hugging each other and there were several voter registration tables set up on the edge of the sidewalk. I couldn't help but notice a glowing young man in a striped t-shirt standing by himself. We caught each others' eye and I approached. "What is going on?" I asked him. "It is a citizenship ceremony, for new Americans," he said in perfect but carefully measured English. His eyes were filled with excitement as he said, "I am American now." "Congratulations," I replied, oddly feeling just as excited as he seemed to be. "Thank you!" he said, "And what about you? You were born this way?" I had never thought about it like that before, and so it took me a moment to reply, "Yes, yes I was born this way." It felt as though something more should be said, but we just stood there smiling, newly sharing perhaps the only thing we had in common- our citizenship. I congratulated him again and went on my way, feeling uncharacteristically patriotic.

This is still the beauty of America, I thought to myself. I can't think of anything more quintessentially American, or democratic, than a citizenship ceremony where newly minted Americans step outside and register to vote. That America has an ever- evolving demographic united by the freedoms (well, hopefully) that we share, is why I really am proud to be American- despite the unfortunate connotation that now comes with that phrase.

Yet the way some of our foreign-born citizens have been marginalized in the "war on terror" is why I often emphasize the fact that I have been living in Canada. Faisal Shahzad could have hurt many people in Times Square on May 1st, but what about the many thousands of Americans he hurt indirectly by casting further suspicion on naturalized citizens of the United States? This latest attempted attack leaves me concerned for "new Americans" and I think it's imperative that we do not let the New York episode lead to more infringements on the rights and freedoms of our citizens. Unfortunately, it might be too late for that.

We have been dealing with increased racial profiling, the expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the FISA Amendments Act, and questionable legal issues surrounding "special courts", military tribunals, and "advanced interrogation methods" in the decade since September 11th. Now, after facing criticism for reading Shahzad his Miranda warnings before questioning, Attorney General Eric Holder and Obama's counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan are proposing an expansion of an already existing exception to the constitutional requirement to read Miranda rights when dealing with certain arrested suspects. In this case- American citizens suspected or accused of terrorism.

The notion that the fight against terrorism should transcend the constitution and trespass the rights of American citizens is frightening. Really, what do we have left as Americans when "special circumstances" are used as an excuse for the CIA and other government agencies to do whatever they damn well please? Not much. What's more, there has been nothing to convince me that ignoring justice leads to increased safety for the U.S. In fact, I would argue that the opposite is true. Torture, secret prisons, and human rights abuses taken out on our own citizens only tarnish our image abroad, no doubt fueling the hatred for the U.S. which factors into the terrorist equation in the first place.

I did not realize, until my experience yesterday, how passionate I am about the rights of Americans citizens- whether they were "born that way" or became an American yesterday. I don't care if you immigrated to the U.S. from Osama Bin Laden's cave- if you are a citizen of the United States, you have the right to privacy, and if you are arrested you have the right to remain silent, the right to a lawyer, and the right to a fair trial. And that's that! Tweaking with these fundamentals is a slippery slope that we just don't need to slide down. Eroding the rights of American citizens in the name of the "war on terror" is oxymoronic- and it doesn't lead to anything good.

And, I'm sorry, but at the end of the day, it is still about racial prejudice. Why don't we use racial profiling to help find rapists and child molesters, the vast majority of whom are white men? Why aren't domestic terrorists like members of the KKK, Timothy McVey, and other white supremacists/wackos et al. tried in military courts? Could it be, ahem, because they are white? Because they had the privilege of being born in America, rather than going through the trials and tribulations of becoming a naturalized citizen? When we make exceptions to constitutional law and the rights of Americans for some crimes and not others, we are setting up a paradigm which paints some citizens as more legitimately American than others, and that scares me.

Of course, there are those who will cheat the system, and I am not trying to make excuses for Shahzad's atrocious actions or claim that there aren't security threats. I think it is important to remember, however, that the majority of foreign-born American citizens are here because they desperately want to be, because they want to participate in freedoms and opportunities not available to them where they may have come from. And they do not pose any more of a threat to our national security than fifth generation Joe Shmoe down the street. I simply think that legal investigations should be conducted where there is cause for suspicion. Wouldn't that be the most effective way to go about things? One would think so.

In any case, it may be apparent that writing about politics is not really my strong suit, and I'll end this with a question. What can we do? What can I do to protect the integrity of American citizenship? Because, at this point, I really don't know. What I do know, after meeting that effervescent "new American", is that I care.