By Alex P. Vidal
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
THE twin tragedies that walloped the Americans in the jugular veins in the first two quarters of 2020 should have been enough for some foreign-born residents like me to fold like a tin can mentally and emotionally.
But my motto remains to be: “Aunt Liberty (referring to the Statue of Liberty), walang iwanan. I’m here to stay.”
While battling the coronavirus’ gut-wrenching lockdown and quarantine since March, and the ongoing George Floyd-whipped lunacy in the street, most of us have refused to call it a night in as far as pursuing and living the American Dream is concerned.
Life is still good in America, we mutter silently.
Although a pandemic, we figure COVID-19, like a nightmare, will eventually retreat and vanish like a smoke in the wind so we can reevaluate and restructure our lives again as normal human beings.
Even if the now escalating street violence threatens to further cripple the chances of some of us to go back to employment soon when the Phase I of reopening of the New York economy beckons, we think authorities are still on top of the situation and will soon restore peace and order to its unmolested glory without a need to choke more protesters to death ala George Floyd.
We can walk down Manhattan’s glitzy thoroughfares again soon without fear of being mugged and blasted in the head by a flying bottle of urine thrown by “I can’t breathe”-chanting protesters and rubber bullets fired by overstressed and tormented cops.
-o0o-
As of this writing, I haven’t monitored an incident in the ongoing acts of violence, looting, and vandalism where a Filipino was involved or injured.
Safety from possible infection of the treacherous COVID-19 remains to be the priority of most of us, thus we are adamant to go out and use the riots as a prop if we wish to impress friends and families in the Philippines and other countries in the social media.
Members of the Filipino family, as well as other Asian communities, avoid, if they can, the areas where violent showdowns and dispersals involving protesters and police are taking places.
Better to be safe than be an uzizero and sorry.
No Pinoy would dare march to where the action is unfolding and use the chaos and turbulence as a background for a “selfie” or “live” Tiktok session.
In TV and other news platforms, it seems like America is burning—chaos and loud exchange of shouts and angry condemnation of what happened to Floyd dominate the surroundings.
But in our apartments, where we have been holed up since March when the lockdown started, we are safe and optimistic that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
America is still great.
-o0o-
Here are some of the reasons why many people from any part of the world still prefer to live in America—with or without COVID-19 and with or without racial-instigated riots.
They may be humorous and self-serving, but they are the most convenient “excuses” if we invoke “good and quality life”: weather; beautiful and spacious houses; amazing food; small towns; optimistic attitude; higher incomes and great work opportunities; English is spoken everywhere; living in a movie location.
Sarah Gustafson wrote in 2016 about a Reddit user who started a thread asking, “Immigrants to America: What was the most pleasant surprise?”
It has since had hundreds of comments, with contributions coming in from both longtime Americans and new residents, Gustafson said.
“A few days ago, Jim Pethokoukis wrote here on AEIdeas about Gallup data showing Americans seem both miserable, and yet increasingly satisfied with their standard of living,” Gustafson explained.
“The website Knowable.com highlighted 25 of the many replies to the Reddit thread, but in the spirit of appreciating the USA and putting our possible misery in proper context, we’ve picked some of our own highlights below.”
-Free public restrooms and how every establishment has air conditioning.
-Clean streets, good luck finding a trash can in Pakistan.
-Rose petals dropped by helicopters fall around the Statue of Liberty in New York June 6, 2014. The event was organized by the organization “The French Will Never Forget” to mark the 70th anniversary of World War Two’s D-Day landings.
-Fireflies… I honestly thought they were mythical, like fairies, until I saw one for the first time in Virginia.
-Showers and running hot water. I was born in the Philippines. Not having to fill buckets with water and boiling some over a stove top was such a big surprise for me.
-Buildings and bridges are so .. .amazing, the infrastructure is good, it makes you thing “wow, mankind DID THIS!”
-Small talks. I really didn’t expect people to just strike up a conversation with someone they’ve never met before.
-People telling me I must be American based solely on my English skills and disregarding my ethnicity feels weird. I like it.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
