Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Peace Essays

Viewing America from a Newborn Democracy

The events of 9/11 woke a sleeping giant, my home of America. What we do with this wakeful state will define our history in the future. We can take the goodwill and fellowship that is felt around the world and weave it into universal peace (while fighting the world’s criminals who have now been labeled “terrorists”). This was a crime against humanity. In those two structures in New York, there were citizens of 87 countries who were murdered. It is not mistake that these criminals attacked a structure with the word “World” in it.

Experiences in former Soviet satellite put U.S. in perspective

     Tbilisi, Georgia - When I was interviewed in this former Soviet republic about my opinions on September 11, I quoted an American writer who said, “Never wake a sleeping giant.”  The events awoke the best elements in America: patriotism, courage, justified anger, and the knowledge that we are no longer alone in the world, although insulated by ocean.  Sixty other nationalities died in the tragedy in Manhattan.

     Ordinary Georgians came up to my wife and myself and touched their hearts.  “Sorry,” they said.

     These are the same sorts of average people who had been taken from their homes in Georgia by the Soviets and executed for just speaking about freedom.  They understood terror in a way that no American can know it.

     Belfast, Tbilisi, Jerusalem, London and other places had known terrorism on a daily basis, but not the continental United States.

     We thought we knew what war was about.  As a generation of television viewers, Vietnam had shown us its horrors.  Now for the first time in our recent history the enemy and the purpose of our actions are clear to all Americans.

     The enemy is now international terrorism and terrorists.  The war in Afghanistan will not solve that, although it is a first step.  There are still havens for terrorists in Yemen, Pakistan, and other countries that should be rooted our and eliminated.

No longer isolated

September 11 provided an opportunity for a world partnership to be established.  We do not have to be our brother’s keeper (although it is not a bad concept to keep in mind as a world neighbor) but we do have to know now that America is no longer alone, isolated or protection by our distance from our enemies.

   The very things that make America great, our inventiveness and technology, our openness to people wishing to come to America, and our freedom, are weapons in the wrong hands.

     I look to my granddaughter and ask. “What kind of world will we leave her?”  The answer is not clear.  I know that our system will survive.

     The heroes of New York were the ordinary people who did the extraordinary things to help each other.  The people on the third airplane who gave their lives so that others on the ground would not die are citizen heroes.  American has a population of heroes.

     We elect leaders so that we can live our daily live in relative peace and freedom, but when that peace is challenged along with our freedom, ordinary people step forward to give superhuman sacrifices for what they believe in and love: American democracy.

     In 2001 I had the opportunity to see other newly formed democ­racies struggle to find out who and what they are. That is not the case with America. I believe that we know what our system is and what it does for us. Ours is a system built on leadership with many heads, commerce to finance the government, and one-person one vote that can change the personnel but never the system.

   Recently, I read a Rumanian columnist's "Ode To America.' He wrote it after seeing October's Concert for New York City and finished his tribute with the one element that binds us all. freedom.

   Since September 11 the average citizen has begun to think of everyday life as it almost always was. But I find that a change has happened in my homeland. The world is not an ocean away now. If you look at the faces in any American city, the world is here.

   Here in Georgia, one of the new democracies, I have with renewed feeling of pride in this, the world's leading democracy.

One of my dearest friends told me one day that he traveled so that he “could meet himself coming around the other way.” I met myself as I flew around the world. The self that left for the Republic of Georgia was not the same one who came back therefore we met each other on my return. I could no longer be the scholar who knew only the Orient. I lived now in the world. My head was global as was my heart. I envision peace now being possible as long as others see without borders too.

Nothing like a year abroad to help one appreciate home

  Flying from Tbilisi, Georgia, to Moscow to Be­ijing and then to Chicago, with layovers in each, 1 had plenty of time to sit and watch the world go by.

   I had the opportunity to extend my Fulbright Scholar's grant for a second year in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. I declined. The reasons are normal for any American living abroad, espe­cially one over retirement age: homesickness; wanting to watch our granddaughter grow into a vibrant, energetic young girl; spending time with extended family; hearing English as the primary language in daily life.

  Being the official American at almost every gathering wears thin after a time. Not looking over your shoulder all the time is a welcome change in Waco, not having to watch for the terrorist who wishes to kidnap you or the potential mugger who thinks that all Americans are rich (maybe an understandable assumption since the economy in most emerging countries is so bad),

  While missing friends we've made in another country, I will not miss signing autographs at all openings of my art exhibitions or the endless interviews on what it is like being "the American" or, "What is American art?".

    I won't miss explaining for the hundredth time "the free enterprise system and how it works for the good of a society."

   I will miss the universal love of the arts, the commitment to arts education in all children by parents, institutions and the society. I want, though, to come home to see again "new ideas" in the visual and performing arts, not just the clas­sics (even when they are presented in magnifi­cent fashion with style and superb execution). At least, there is the ^.possibility of new music played by symphony orchestras in America and new ballets.

     I will miss the hospitality of the Georgian culture, eating and toasting these things that are universal (country; family, children, women. love, art, those who have died, grandchildren, mountains, freedom. and friendship).

   I will not miss "terrorist hospitality" where some men try to get the American to drink too much, stay too long, and eat more than is good for him.

  One of the main reasons for coming home was health. The health-care system in Georgia ranges from bad to awful. In the 1989 census there were 5.6 million. Georgians. In 2000, it was down to 4.6 million. Here is a country that has lost 1 million of its citizens, roughly one fifth of its population fleeing, seeking a better standard of living and better health care.

   Sitting in airports in Tbilisi, Moscow and Be­ijing, waiting to come home, I noticed that there were not many fat people. I came home to lose weight, get my knees fixed (operations that I put off to go to Georgia), and learn more about weight loss and a healthy lifestyle.

     As I sat in the airport in Chicago, I wondered for a fraction of a second if I came to the right place for weight loss. Half the people I saw were overweight. I looked up the statistics on the In­ternet: 63 percent of men and 55 percent of women in America are overweight. It is not surprising that the weight-loss industry is a $33 billion busi­ness in 2002.

  This is not true in China with its 1.6 billion people.

    In Beijing, Anne and I stayed five days so I had time to walk the streets, sit in restaurants and observe. There are few overweight people and in the mornings the enormous parks are filled with Chinese practicing tai chi.

   The 2Ist century will be a time when the drag­on gates of China open and a torrent of the best, brightest and fittest people flood the world.