Jeg fant ut at jeg burde gjøre om siste artikkel, i forbindelse med trykking i The Good Five Cent Cigar, og har derfor skrevet dette i stedet.
Last week was the Martin Luther King’s week here at the University of Rhode Island. There’s nothing funny about that, because this man is considered to be one of the most significant persons of the 20th century. What he did when he followed the non-violent path of Ghandi to fight social inequality is an example yet to be overcome. He’s the prime example of social mobility for change. You’ve all been made familiar with that term during the last couple of years (which I will come back to later on).
History has many a time printed its mark upon American soil, perhaps more than in any other country of the modern world. The rest of the world’s eyes are watching you constantly with both curiosity and suspicion. That is the curse (or even blessing) of being the sole superpower and leader of the free world. The following question is; how does a humble Norwegian such as me view the splendor of such a superpower?
I thought of comparing you to ancient Rome. That’s just not right, because Rome wasn’t built in a day. America was (at least compared to Rome). You’ve achieved the position of the world’s largest distributor of pop culture (from a place called Hollywood). All I’ve ever learned of America, I’ve learned from Hollywood. My knowledge tells me that Canadians all look like cartoons with their head split in two while they’re speaking, that someone intensely hates Michael Moore, that Fox News is a cruel TV-station run by the republicans, the people of Springfield are yellow, and that sadistic animals play violent practical jokes upon each other (read Disney-cartoons). No wonder why our American history books are just compilations of Hollywood blockbusters.
Well, these perceptions must cease. I’ve realized something since I first got here three weeks ago, and nobody in Boston wanted to invite me to a Tea Party. I’ve realized that America is not what I see on TV or like I read on Wikipedia. The Rainbow D-House has no” Van the Man”. People are not smoking weed in their rooms, even though we’re just outside Providence. I need change. We need change.
That brings me back to Martin Luther King Jr. and the present president, Mr. Barrack Obama. They both are symbols of change and both won the Nobel Peace Prize. MLK walked, Obama ran. In Norway, the situation is different. While America is the big melting pot of diversity embracing its history of immigrants and their contribution of building the country, it’s quite the opposite in Norway. We have no experience in being the multicultural melting pot a globalized world requires. We need our own Dr. Martin. We have civil rights in Norway but we need to spread the message of coexisting in individual difference because there are no such things as race or color or ethnicity – there are only humans.
My worst fear is that Norway becomes “American History X”. So, when you read this title “American History Y” and wonder what the heck I meant with that. Think. Why is American history important? It’s the changes you work for that writes history.
