To the editor:
Hillary Clinton likes to say, when refuting the dark, suspicious, anti-immigrant view of our country that her opponent encourages in his supporters: “That’s not who we are.” She has made clear her positive view of our coutry and her belief that immigrants make a positive economic contribution. HIllary could, but so far has not, however, made clear who we are.
Who we are is intimately bound up with the kind of social setting we live in and the social atmosphere we breathe. For instance, in Maine, American Friends have run a camp for Arab and Jewish adolescents from Israel who, on American soil, enjoy peace and form warm friendships. In Virginia, the Global Village camp invites youngsters from Middle Eastern countries and America who, on American soil, enjoy peace and form warm friendships. In Massachusetts, two Oxford graduates, one working class, the other upper class, here to pursue graduate studies, had had only awkward contact with each other in England but became friendly companions on American soil.
Anybody from anywhere can enter Manhattan’s main public library or any of our local village libraries and be courteously served. When Svetlana Alliluyeva entered the American Embassy in New Delhi, the Marine at the reception desk in the lobby, with no idea who she was, looked up, smiled at her, and asked how he could help. That smile – so un-Soviet – gave her a beautiful and surprising introduction to our country.
We live in a country in which the law guarantees both order and civil rights, due to everyone. They form the bedrock of the American dream, which people from foreign countries so often see more clearly than we citizens do. But we citizens, by our friendly social behavior and by the way we run our institutions – openly and welcoming – we keep that dream alive. That’s who we are. Mrs. Clinton, you believe in us; you can tell us and show us who we are.
Heidi Dawidoff
Francestown