America the Ugly

Beat it! Beat it! Oh, God, beat it till it stops moving!

Far be it for me to beat a dead horse, (except if it is one of those undead horses that hungers for flesh, then by all means we should beat that hell-beast back to the fire pits of Hades from whence it came,) but after my long hiatus I have had a few things on my mind that I want to get off my chest, (mind-chest?) So with the fact, that this week Congress has basically announced that they will once again fail to move on any sort of meaningful immigration reform, it seems as good a time as any to look at the multicultural identity of America and the soft drink that is cashing in on it.

This year during the Super Bowl one particular ad seemed to blow everyone away, Coca Cola's America the Beautiful. I remember seeing the advertisement and the sum of my reaction was, "Oh, that's kind of sappy. Is there anymore pulled pork?" I barely noticed the thing, because by my standards the commercial was... well pretty standard. Scenes of American landscapes entwined with a rainbow parade of people and cowboy hats. Heck we might as well have had a bunch of celebrities come out and sing, we are the world... which probably wouldn't have bothered people as much, provided they sung it in English. It wasn't till the next day when I found out about the incredibly close-minded backlash people had against the commercial.

Twitter is both a blessing and curse, but sometimes more a curse. Not only does it give a venue and voice to any Tom, Harry and Dickish person who wants to spout nonsense and vileness, but it allows them to conveniently hashtag their idiocy so those those disparate voices can raise together, like a wave of crap that drowns out small villages and quiet pastures. Most of these Twitter offenders came off sounding more stereotypically bigoted than 90% of white men in a Spike Lee movie. (Is that statement racist, or just dated?) Worst of all, the news media (being what it is) further promoted the idiot speech by airing it on TV. I, however, refuse to repeat most of the trash said, but sufficed to say it was ugly, embarrassing, and filled with outrage over the fact that America the Beautiful was not sung in English, despite the fact that most of those offended Tweeters failed to use proper English themselves.

I could go on and talk about how people who make these kind of ignorant and hate-filled statements forget the principles on which America has always survived (freedom, diversity, immigration;) or I could bring up the fact that English is not our official language, (only 80% of Americans speak it as their primary language. The US has never had an official language;) or that English is not this land's first language either, (I'm sure the Navajo or the Cherokee were just as mad when our ancestors arrived and started singing their sacred songs in English;) or that the song itself was written by a lesbian, (I have no snide comment for that one. It's just kind of cool,) but instead I want to try and understand their fear... and yes it is fear.

America is changing radically, and that scares a lot of people, if only because the change is inevitable. By 2042 the US Census Bureau estimates that Americans that identify themselves as Hispanic, black, Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, etc will out number the population of "White Americans," in the United States. According to the New York Times, Protestants are now a minority religion in the country, and a full one-third of people under the age of 30 no longer associate themselves with any organized religion at all. States are ratifying gay and lesbian marriages quicker than falling dominoes and now we even have two states that have legalized marijuana. Combine this with the fact that China is poised to take our place as the next global economic superpower and  the rise of joint-European power, anyone who clings to the old ideals of a 1950's-like America, has to be pretty freaked out. They can see the light coming at the end of the tunnel and as far as they are concerned, it's an onrushing train coming to shatter everything they believe and hold dear.

Because Dolphin-Americans have a voice too.

Progressives and younger generations tend to look at these people and laugh because it seems absurd that they would find fault with something as simple as a song sung in several languages in a soft drink commercial, but to the conservatives and the hold-outs its just another sign of what they fear, change. So they do what all humans do when confronted with their fears, they laugh at it, they mock it, they deny it, they stand stubbornly against it, and all in the hopes to minimize it and maybe even get it to go away. Unfortunately for them, its not going away. This change is more inevitable that that penny I get whenever I buy 99 cent milk, but that is fortunate for all of us whether we know it or not.

The United States will survive, not despite our multiculturalism, but because of it. Think about it this way: Thanks to our influx of immigrants by 2050 the 16 to 64 age group is expected to grow 42%, (that's about 350 million people) even when at the same time other developed nations such as those in Europe and East Asia will have more than a third of their population over the age of 65. In other words, when countries like China, Japan, Germany, Russia, etc have a majority of their population who is no longer able to work, America will still have a vibrant and young workforce. That's good, because with a large youth population comes not just a young workforce, but change, innovation, and the ability to make our world better.

America has always been a place of change and growth. Right now we are stuck in a cycle of anger and frustration, class inequality, immigration disputes, an entrenched political system, and so much more. (And, in a lot of ways, that tastes sourer than 99 cent milk.) Our very definitions are changing as we redefine things like marriage or copyright or patriotism, and that scares some people a lot, (and probably a lot of people some.) That is natural, but we need to find a way to cope with our fears instead of taking to social media to spew off the first nasty thought that comes to mind. That serves no other purpose than to cast a shadow on all of us. We will continue on and we will continue to prosper, believe it or not. It's not an easy road in front of us, we have a lot of work to do and more than a few fights ahead of us, but also some joys, and one of those is the joy of a refreshing Coca Cola, because regardless of what side of this argument you are on, let's face it, Coke is the winner. We are still talking about their commercial, after all.