1. MELTING POT: While it is true that first thoughts of someone like me go back to the era when the country was involved in some imperialist lording and bloody wars even as the Cold War held up some of the equilibrium in the world, but well the recent perceptions do conjure up this image: yes, notwithstanding some of its foreign policy, it is a great melting pot for those who come here in keeping with the famous saying about this multi-cultural country! As one of the characters in the now closed TV Series 'West Wing' says to a student audience, "America is an idea about plurality!!".
Yeah sure, we are accustomed to that description back in India too - even as we struggle somewhat to hold on to the idea - but you can't agree more, as you see people of several nationalities and origins settled and moving about through the length and breadth of this vast country with ease; and earning a place in the institutions and public life in due course, more so as their next generations grow up and flourish!
And yet, you notice the undercurrents, nay hear the clear voices on both mainstream and alternative media crying foul over racial discrimination, predominantly African Americans very many of whom still seem to find themselves on the fringe, and also a victim of violence, (Charleston Church attack being the latest example) in spite of a John F Kennedy, some other reformers decades ago and the current eight years of Obama!
So it seems some "white pride" like or "supremacist" groups drawing sustenance from dead "ideologues" like Ben Klassen - which though may be on the fringe as far as numbers are concerned - speak mainly against Jews (and their domination in every domain in USA), and about saving and segregating themselves from blacks. And they claim they owe no responsibility to bring up black, yellow and other "mud races" for anything like an egalitarian society! While sections of blacks feel strongly there is discrimination in all spheres of activity, others apparently tend to ignore any incidence they might come across.
Creditably though, there is no dearth of white liberals themselves speaking up against the conscious but even the unconscious racism among the whites, some of whom fail to even recognize its existence in their personalities!
The conservatives who also lend to the racial strain, wittingly or unwittingly, are a big force again when it comes to other divisive issues like women's equality in marriage, sex and family formation, abortions, weapons and arms policy in US, the same sex marriages and LGBT issues and the like!!
What is great again is there is a free debate and people using social media can come down heavily on politicians - as also in India now. Nikki Haley, the much hyped Indian origin Governor of South Carolina received loads and loads of brickbats for what was seen as her "non-categorical" stand on the Charleston shooting incident and the confederate flag her state is still using, as against the federal flag. Bobby Jindal also seems to be receiving some flak lately.
2. HIGH CIVIC ORDER: You do find some stray cigarette buts, plastic bottles and such stuff on the roadside or in some water bodies somewhere once in a while, but the civic life seems to be pretty much orderly and disciplined with people following norms to perhaps a 99% level of compliance? The calm order is so astonishing that you don't make out on the glassed gate of a metro station that it is actually a station, leave of course NY out! A jam is never complicated even if it's two-lane road as no one jumps over you, nor blocks the oncoming traffic, not to even mention honking! Everyone is supposed to give you a comfortable margin in a queue without breathing over your neck, wherever it may be and even if a flight is cancelled and travelers find themselves in some kind of a situation!
Beautiful Landscaping is the norm and not an exception within and around communities or public spaces which makes them pleasing sights everywhere! Facilities, information (and loads of it) and access to them is remarkable. Automation is huge as you find from sensor operated community gates to toll plazas with smart readers and from roadside to multi-level parking that the human intervention is minimal!
3. EDUCATION & RESEARCH: With several Universities of repute and high standing and their focus on well-funded research, newer advancements in technology and newer theories in social sciences are perhaps a routine as the intelligentsia and academicians seem to surge ahead of competition from other quarters! Individuals, corporates and public sector agencies like NASA don't seem to lag behind either, as some of us would know of their space advances!
Tesla, the latest electric car with a price tag of USD 50000 or thereabouts not only competes with any gasoline car in performance, but has also revolutionized the sector and forced the giants Ford and GM to develop their own electric cars for the times the planet is headed to!!
4. A CONSUMERIST SOCIETY: Consumerism is thick in American life with commoners generally being indifferent to how much per capita consumption of gasoline or creation of carbon foot print they resort to! The cost of petrol is very very low in comparison to middle class incomes, no wonder it results in car commuting with no pooling in sight or not much resort to public transport. The creation of plastic, tin, glass and other waste is mind boggling. But the effort to recollect is not bad at all!
An airport sign that i happened to read recently estimated that some 2.5 million plastic bottles of water are used on an average every hour in US!! Another estimate about carbon emissions pegs 20 tons of CO2 emission per annum per American due to gasoline usage in cars driven by them, whereas the world average is pegged at a meager 1 ton per annum!
But strangely, perhaps for the sheer size of the country or for some right regulation in place, you don't feel the air quality is bad at all, except may be in mega metros like New York, Chicago, etc?
While the slogan "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" may be catching up (and I can't fail to recall how in India we have always done it instinctively to save on personal costs or for extracting the residual value of anything), to slow down on the landfills, the deeply entrenched habits of consumption on the move and the "throw away culture" would seem difficult to shed for an average American! And yet the collective psyche of the American society is not lagging behind when it comes to issues of the ecological kind, except that they try not to hinder the personal choices much.
5. VETERANS ARE REVERED: On a nationalist plane, the country seems to revere its soldiers! It observes November 11 as the Veterans Day and institutions seem to make it a point to felicitate veterans present in assemblies and public gatherings, if only by acknowledging their presence with respectful cheering. The US Airways extends special complimentary lounge facilities to Veterans at airports.
There is a well stated policy for seniors and there are provisions to take cognizance of any abuse!
6. BURGEONING INDIAN DIASPORA: The Indian culture and way of life is well represented as the Indian diaspora keeps spreading its presence from East Coast to West Coast. You can find all varieties of Indians at any place you visit: for every Tambi you spot with his Saree clad consort, there is Punjabi Jatt or Sikh with the Patiala-suit clad Punjaban!
While Yog seems to have made inroads in much of America, there is the biggest Akshardham Temple coming up in a part of New Jersey. There are some five-six Sikh Gurudwaras in San Francisco Bay area alone! Besides the Hindu temples in as far an area as Mount Madonna in Gilroy, California which hosts a Sankatmochan Hanuman Mandir to rid the devout of the travails, should they encounter any in this faraway land!
Indian restaurants and Indian grocery stores abound every five kilometers or so and you can find anything suited to the Indian palette on these stores! So much so, you can find Samosas in the "Mystery Spot" in what is no less a deep forest in Santa Cruz, or for that matter Mount Madonna!
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