Between the Lines -- Byron de Arakal

And the rocket’s red glare,

The bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night

That our flag was still there--

This Fourth of July -- on the avenue fronting my home -- a flame will

be put to a spectacular and lasting fireworks production. It will cost me

more coin than I should spend. But it will treat me and the wife and the

kids to great curtains of shimmering sparks and exhilarating whistles and

dazzling colors lasting well into the night. I need it this year more

than ever. I need it to remind me that our flag -- the American flag --

is still there.

I want it this way because I’m thinking the terrorists are winning.

I’m not proud to own the notion. But it’s nonetheless there.

Whatever it is about America that’s hated by the purveyors of terror

-- be it our riches or our freedoms or our inalienable rights -- my brain

can’t shake the nagging worry that many more of us are unwittingly aiding

and abetting these thugs. That we’re blindly abiding their quest to erode

the singularly unique blessing of being an American.

Perhaps it’s my festering cynicism and paranoia. But up here in the

cheap seats where the view of the field is large, it seems more of us are

working harder to strip America of the symbols and rituals and

institutions that define what it means to be American. We seem far too

eager to claim ourselves white or black. Gay or straight. Liberal or

conservative. Jew or Christian or Muslim or atheist. It’s as if being

these things is, increasingly, how we define who we are. Not as a people,

but as individuals. As islands. And so we focus on and scrap over what

makes us different (our race or faith or sexual identity) rather than

celebrating what unites us (our common American citizenship).

I think that’s how the terrorists want it. To divide and conquer the

great American experiment by exploiting ethnic and religious and cultural

differences. By having us believe that being American is merely an

adjective -- a bloodless classification -- that undermines the far more

meaningful and immutable realities of race, color and creed.

The terrorists are winning because we have forgotten that we are

Americans first and the other stuff second. The terrorists are winning

because we have forgotten that being American is a higher and nobler

station than being black or white. Rich or poor. Gay or straight. The

terrorists are winning because my faith (or lack of it) is more worthy of

protection than your desire to profess allegiance to the American flag,

“one nation under God.” The terrorists are winning because more of us

believe that our peculiar interests (too often confused with inalienable

rights) are more worthy of protection than the peculiar interests of our

neighbors.

The beauty of the American experiment is that citizenship within it

supersedesthe diversity and differences among us. Differences that would

otherwise divide and destroy us. But these days I’m too often seeing

events here in Newport-Mesa that spark the imagination to wonder. Are we

more interested in identifying ourselves by blood heritage, by our own

selfish interests, than by the unifying ideal of American citizenship? I

think we are.

Are we more interested in defining and separating one another by

language and culture and faith than we are by our common Americanism,

which celebrates differences without prejudice? Perhaps.

Have our identities become so individualistic (I’m gay, I’m black, I’m

white, I’m a Jew) that we confuse our demand for tolerance as a demand

for approval? Very likely they have.

One can’t claim the benefits of American liberty (independence,

freedom of speech and thought, free expression of faith) by first

claiming to be white or African American or Mexican American or Asian

American. By claiming to be gay or straight. By claiming to be Jew or

Gentile.

When we insist that our identities rest in these things -- ahead or in

lieu of the great equalizer of American citizenship -- then we open

chasms among us and fan the flames of division and dissent. We give

license to call each other racists and bigots, homophobes and hate

mongers. We meddle in the property interests of our neighbors. We begin

to take exception to the kind of car our neighbors drive. And we even

plot to thwart fireworks celebrations because they are too noisy or

dangerous or damage the canvas on our pleasure boats.

All of which is very insidious and dangerous and wholly un-American.

But that’s the way the terrorists like it. And right now they’re winning.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a freelance writer and communications advisor. He

lives in Costa Mesa. He column appears Wednesdays. Readers can reach him

with news tips and comments via e-mail at [email protected]. Visit his

Web site at www.byronwriter.com.