We wake up to a world of absolute natural beauty, of a kind and generous people of loving parents who dote on us, of friends that share our common interests, of schools and colleges that seemingly provides us with the type of education we need for us to prosper in this world. We wake up to our newly married partners wistful musings and gentle snoring by our side with the pitter-patter of little footsteps growing ever louder in our ears. We wake up to our boss at work that depends on our contributions to make the company successful and, by doing so, make the world a better place. We enjoy barbeques with our delightfully friendly neighbours across from us, who share our value and our worldview.
We wake up to church services on Sunday from the kindly minister of God who preaches with sincerity and passion borne of a love for all mankind! We leave the hallowed church grounds feeling suitably blessed. We wake up to the glorious, catchy smells of a Sunday lunch that draws us to a table neatly prepared for a picture book family that radiates love, kindness, understanding and compassion for each other and others. We wake up to the sounds of a gentle, but urgent alarm encouraging us to prepare for another week at work where we know we are changing society because of one or the other innovation that we contributed to and are confident it will make the world infinitely better than what it was before we arrived.
We read books and magazines that supports and confirms our deeply held Christian value systems of “loving your neighbour as yourself.” We know that the monthly support we willingly offer to our local and one international charity helps people not as fortunate as ourselves, and silently, we thank God for blessings we believe we deserve. We are “naturally” good people who don’t mean to harm anyone. We tune into the lifestyle and sports television channels that aptly affirms our lifestyle, our habits and our social mores and if our favourite team has clinched yet another trophy, it confirms our “winning” nature and mentality in our heads.
We entertain our now ageing parents at our beautiful home that have just been upgraded, and through their admiring comments and approving glances, plan our next family holiday to the all-time favourite destination we so enjoyed a few years back! We remind ourselves that we have to call our equally loving and caring siblings on Tuesday to trade “war stories” and cute anecdotes. We swap advice with them, knowing that should we ever be in a “fix,” our brother or sister wouldn’t hesitate to come to our rescue. Our partners enjoy regular monthly date nights with us, and we catch them glimpsing admiringly at us, sure of their love and eternal fidelity, and we know we’ve been lucky to have chosen so well and that God is good.
Often our suburb is voted as the most well-kept suburb in our state for its general ambience, tree-lined streets and avenues, spotlessness, and friendly and helpful neighbours with all the amenities close by and a non-existent crime rate. We beam with pride at our local neighbourhood shindig and discuss other ways of beautifying the place even more next year so we can hold onto the coveted prize.
On our way to work, we look around and marvel at the fact that so many of our neighbours drive the same type of cars, with similar paint jobs, which reminds us of just how fortunate we are that all the people who share a common value system seem to get it right most of the times. We know we are “winners,” because every book, magazine, radio station programme, TV ad, TV programme, announcements by the local and national government officials and all the literature we have read for our lifetime confirm that. We have come to accept that with just a little hard work, conscientiousness, good college education and solid Christian values, we can fulfil our deepest desires and live the “American Dream.”
After all, our forefathers sailed across oceans and travelled thousands of miles into inhospitable countries to secure us, their future generations, a good life carved out of titanic struggles with the natives, temperamental mother nature, and inefficient technology to secure for us this divine and beautiful country that is America. Even the name of our country sounds “better” to our ears than other countries? I mean, who wants to be called ” Russian” or, for that matter, who wishes to live in Africa, with so many disasters, poor corrupt governments and such great masses of uneducated people? We quickly remind ourselves of how lucky we are to be Americans living in God’s land, which we know for sure to be the most extraordinary country, the wealthiest country and the most powerful in history.
We know we are blessed when we occasionally read the stories of political unrest, civil strife and wars in other countries. We quietly thank God, who almost seems to be an American, that he has been so kind to us, for what seems to be either luck on our part or perhaps it is our “manifest destiny” to be God’s chosen people? We haven’t yet become aware that we are WHITE and all the economic and material benefits that flow from that singular aspect. Soon we will be faced with the inevitable march of people who don’t look like us, and who constantly march in the streets for something or other, they claim we have taken from them, and that disturbs our lives so much that we are finally able to “connect the dots.”
