“I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, a Yankee Doodle do or die. A real live Nephew of My Uncle Sam, born on the 4th of July”.
In a time of identity theft and figuring out who real Americans are amongst the many diverse ethnicities and cultural pluralism practiced here, we find numerous examples of tests for purity that point up the problem we have with identity deniability.
There are writers in Turkey who seize upon the historical fact of a genocide committed against Armenians, a horrible crime that the Turks deny ever happen. What the Turks have done in addition to denial is to imprison and threaten the lives of writers who broach the subject – in the face of Turkey ardently wishing to become Europeans in the European Union and to deny that they are at the crossroads of West and East – right in the middle of old Asia Minor.
This is not the most blatant example of deniability for Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has tried to outdo Ahmadinejad of Iran as a denier of problems within their own countries and focus on the sulfur smelling land of the U.S. where the UN holds its meetings. Something is out of sync here. In other words, something smells. I find the photo (Miami Herald’s front page of 09-22-06) showing Danny Glover a world class actor embracing Hugo Chavez in a Harlem Church interesting. This is the kind of action that gives liberalism a bad name – particularly among conservatives who would like Americans if not the world marching in lock step with no dissenting voices or someone whose left foot is planted while everyone else’s right foot hits the ground.
I am bemused at the disclosure of Americans who suddenly find they have a Jewish mother, a Jewish step-father or who are racially impure with some Black ancestor. Are we or are we not a pluralistic society where religious background and the color of one’s skin are not the “decider” of who is an American? Is it not the content of their character that is the test we should employ? Obviously, in this time of elections (when we should provide unambiguous proof that we employ democracy here) religious or racial ancestry is an important ingredient of the mix that produces our leaders. And, then, in Texas - there is Kinky Friedman.
Are we voting for leaders or someone who can sing and dance to the tune that George M. Cohan (Irish – not Jewish) made famous? Actually, we have voted for actors and singers who have shown their skills on the screen and in bands of yore. Clinton with his saxophone is called to mind. However, whatever the situation, identity deniability is employed to escape or to secure your vote.