In a passionate open letter to Donald Trump, journalist Hisham Melhem appeals for an understanding of immigrants by documenting his “Americanization”.
Melhem describes his attraction to the US — from movies to music to Twain and Hemingway — growing up in Lebanon and then his experience after coming to American to study at Villanova University: “I shared apartments in low-income, crime-infested neighborhoods with…immigrants, and worked alongside them on assembly lines.”
But this foreign student, who did not intend to remain in the United States after earning a degree, was welcomed by nearly all the people I encountered. They were as curious about me and the world I left behind as I was interested in them and their world. This never-ending mutual discovery and rediscovery has been the hallmark of my American life. At Villanova, on the streets of Philadelphia, and most importantly at the Zenith assembly lines, I soon discovered that America comes with many colors and hues and endless accents. I saw this country as the huge, modern Babel that keeps humming, moving, plowing new territories, and incessantly creating — not in spite of, but because of its diversity.
The conclusion of the article, written for Foreign Policy:
We came to America in part to escape the suffocating identity politics and intolerance of our former homelands, where nationalism is one step away from chauvinism. We wanted to live in a country where one can partake in American patriotism by embracing the American creed and ethos, regardless of ethnicity and religion….
Mr. Trump, for almost two years you and your close supporters have engaged in the politics of fear and smear, speaking ill of nonwhite immigrants and Muslims and publicly praising authoritarians like Presidents Vladimir Putin [of Russia], Recep Tayyip Erdoğan [of Turkey], and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi [of Egypt].
Mr. Trump, your hostile views about “Muslims entering the United States” shocked the American Muslim community, and antagonized and alienated Muslim states, the very people you need in the struggle against Islamist extremism at home and abroad. Your opposition to accepting even a small number of refugees from the horrors of Syria betrays our values, and condemns more Syrian children to death at the hands of their government while we watch the proceedings streamlined live.
Your ambivalence about human rights at home and abroad is very disturbing. For the first time in my 44-year American life, I am genuinely concerned about my civil rights. For you to suggest depriving Americans of their citizenship for exercising their First Amendment rights — indeed to even think that it would be legal to do so — is beyond chilling. In a world where autocracy is on the march, you have seriously damaged America’s unique place as a successful, inspiring democratic model.
Mr. Trump, I voted against you, precisely because of these reasons. And if you desecrate my American secular bible, you will see me and my compatriots manning the proverbial ramparts to defend the very idea of America — the America we deserve and cherish, the America that comes with many colors and accents. For we are not American nationalists, but we are definitely fierce American patriots.
