Yesterday — in my posting “National days”, a Peruvian (delivering food to my house) celebrated US Independence Day on my behalf:
My dinner for June 27 was delivered by a courier bubbling over in delight about the coming Fourth of July, which he identified as my national day (adding that he was Peruvian and his national days came at the end of July…)
In the posting, I played things the way the courier framed them and didn’t appreciate that he was probably also full of delight in America’s liberation day on his own behalf. Meanwhile the news was just coming in that the US government had launched a hugely expanded program of detention and deportation affecting many groups, including Latinos / Hispanics of all sorts — making a decidedly bitter day of liberty for all.
And now today. Another food delivery, brought to me by Jaime, a courier new to me, Mexican I think. Who also bubbled over in smiles, then stood smartly to attention, and gave me a proper military salute. As a representative of my (in his eyes) wonderful country. Of which I am now deeply ashamed.
I did not burst into bitter tears, there’s a triumph. I considered offering him namaste as the only imaginable gesture of peace, humility, and respect for him, but realized it was probably alien to him. Settled for a bow to him and heartfelt thanks. I couldn’t do a salute, it’s way too military.
I should have stood back up and recited my Credo, the text I committed to heart long before we had to study it in school, committed to memory because I am a true child of the Enlightenment; while I came to a personal understanding of great wickedness early in my life, I was also given this gift of ideas:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
You must understand that in the context, all men conveyed ‘all people’ — but beyond that I choose to take this declaration of belief at face value, to let the wonderful words shine through.
