Yesterday, Jan. 20, 2017, the United States of America began a new chapter in the its life as a Republic with the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as its 45th President. It is a good day for his supporters but for many others, in America and the rest of the world, there is a sense of uncertainty, even fear of what lies ahead.
The New York Times describes the angst many in Washington DC are feeling. Among the places it mentioned as bracing for the coming of the Trump Administration, probably the most conservative and right-wing of American administrations, is Takoma Park, the city where my family and I lived for eight years from 1999 to 2006. The Times reports:
“In free-spirited Takoma Park, Md., a ‘nuclear-free zone’ since 1983, a left-wing resistance movement is taking shape. Nadine Bloch, an activist and artist, is running pre-inaugural training on nonviolent protest— complete with mock police officers wielding rolled up newspapers as batons . . .
Just over the Maryland line, Takoma Park is a ‘sanctuary city,’ which refuses to prosecute undocumented immigrants. Mr. Trump does not look kindly on that. Days after the election, Ms. Bloch, 55, the organizer, helped pull together Takoma Park Mobilization, a new grass-roots group aimed at ‘standing up for our neighbors,’ she said. More than 500 people attended the first meeting.”
Today, Saturday, the day after Trump’s inauguration, a huge women’s march is being held in the US capital, possibly dwarfing the crowds that will witness Trump’s oathtaking tomorrow.
Meantime, all over the world, foreign capitals wait in anticipation of possibly radical changes in US foreign policy: a more inward-looking and protectionist America, hostile to Muslims, dangerously aggressive against China (who is ironically now the champion of globalization and will become the undisputed global leader on climate change), distant from and intentionally dividing Europe, and friendlier to the Russians and other authoritarian regimes.
On the climate change front, we are preparing for the worst as the Trump administration could derail or slow the progress we have made since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. Luckily, there is global momentum in favor of addressing the problem; a single country, no matter how big or powerful, cannot stop that.
While Presidents Trump and Duterte, because of their personalities, might have a better personal relationship than the latter had with outgoing US President Barrack Obama, the Philippines is now up against an America that will not hesitate to bully us for its own interests. The threat, for example, to our BPO industry and to Philippine immigration to the United States cannot be underestimated, not to mention the escalation of tensions with China that is likely to affect us.
What should we make of all of this? How should we respond?
Thankfully, the United States of America I know is not just the America of Donald J. Trump. What I know is not just the misogynistic, racist, and angry America that seems to prevail right now.
The America that I know more is that of Yale Law School, one of the gentlest learning places in the world.
It’s the America of Myres Mcdougal, Michael Reisman, Harold Koh, John Cavanaugh, Robin Broad, Henry Schwalbenberg, David Fairman, Lawrence Susskind, Bill Moomaw, Owen J. Lynch, and other public intellectuals of the highest caliber, especially those who have taught and mentored many generations of Filipinos.
It’s those Americans who came to the Philippines and stayed here permanently to build this country, people like William Henry Scott, Susan Evangelista, and Steve Rood. It’s the hundred of American Jesuits, Maryknoll Priests and Nuns, protestant pastors, young Mormons, and missionaries of many faiths who came here to serve and bring their good news.
It’s the America of the World Resources Institute where I worked for many years and the Center for International Environmental Law whom I serve as Trustee, both of which have done so much good for the world.
It’s people like Jennifer Morgan, now co-Executive Director of Greenpeace International, and Jonathan Pershing, the outgoing Special Envoy on Climate Change of the US who have done so much to move the world forward on climate change. It’s people like Frances Seymour, Taryn Fransen, Colleen Chien, David Baxter, and other friends whom I will continue to trust and rely on for the truth and their commitment to developing countries.
It’s the America of Barrack Obama, who as Senator shared a fitness gym with me, and whose election in 2008 made me desire, for the first (and only for a day or two) time, to be an American. It’s the America of Martin Luther King and other modern-day heroes who had dreams, fought injustice, and continue to inspire many to continue the struggle.
The America I know is those Filipinos who are dual citizens or migrants in the US. They are good people, patriots all: Loida Nicolas Lewis, Ted Laguatan, Rodel Rodis, Benjamin Pimentel, and others that have been recently and falsely maligned in the #LeniLeaks controversy.
It’s Filipinos/Filipino-Americans like Vicente Rafael, Diane Desierto, Joyce Hermoso, and David Forman, who work in American universities while continuing to contribute to the motherland.
It’s the America of my LGBT friends, and especially those whom I lived with when I was a student, who now must face new challenges with the backlash unleashed by their legal victories.
It’s the America of the La Viñas in Baltimore, the Bontos in New Jersey, the Jacots in California, and the Ebarle clan in New York. These relatives of mine, as many other families, lives their American dream with pride and dignity.
The America I know is the land of contradictions that the great Filipino migrant writer, Carlos Bulosan wrote about so eloquently. In “America is in the Heart,” Bulosan writes words that today are still relevant: “America is not bound by geographical latitudes. America is not merely a land or an institution. America is in the hearts of men that died for freedom; it is also in the eyes of men that are building a new world. America is a prophecy of a new society of men: of a system that knows no sorrow or strife or suffering. America is a warning to those who would try to falsify the ideals of freemen.”
Never to forget his roots, while clear-eyed about what was wrong about his adopted country, Bulosan proclaimed: “America is also the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling on a tree. America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities is closed to him. We are all that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrant and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adams to the last Filipino, native born or alien, educated or illiterate – —We are America!”
This is the America in my heart. And Trump and his ilk will not change that.
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