It’s striking when you haven’t been outside the U.S. in a long time. The last time I left for abroad was pre-COVID, when I was getting ready for my wedding in the Philippines back in 2019.
Fittingly, my next international trip was for my honeymoon this year in Portugal — delayed by almost three years, offset by two other destinations (Argentina and France ended up being too costly), and almost completely overtaken by the banalities of daily life that it seemed like it would never happen.
So when my husband and I finally stepped foot on the emerald shores of Madeira, Portugal, we felt reborn. We were thousands of miles from home, on a lush, rugged island in the middle of the Atlantic, embarking on a new European adventure that involved burning our legs for magnificent vistas and eating bountiful fresh seafood and swimming in the ocean and drinking far too much espresso in tiny cups.
For two people working in medicine and politics, it was pure escapism at its finest.
And yet.
As we tried to shed our busy schedules and tone down our Americanisms, chirpy news alerts trickled in through our phones with the familiar, incessant tone of uniquely, American-made violence and death:
Mass Shooting in California. A gunman killed 10 people at a dance studio.
A Dreamy Place of Refuge Turns Into Another Spasm of American Violence. Officials are still releasing the names of the 11 people killed (***) at a Los Angeles dance club.
For victims in Monterey Park, a refuge for immigrants exploded in violence.
When a gunman opened fire on a ballroom dance floor in a Los Angeles suburb Saturday night, hundreds of Asian Americans were there celebrating the Lunar New Year and enjoying one of their favorite pastimes.
A Wake of Tragedy in California After Mass Shootings. In less than 48 hours, there was a massacre in Monterey Park and another in Half Moon Bay.
Half Moon Bay Immigrant Community Reels From Mass Shooting of Farmworkers. A 66-year-old man is facing seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
A Terrifying Sign of Assimilation
If Mr. Chou, Mr. Tran and Mr. Zhao committed mass shootings, they did so not because they were Asian but as Americans.
Mass murder may be the fullest act of assimilation possible into a culture that has proudly chosen as its colors the red of innocent blood, the white of panicked eyes and the hazy blue of semiautomatic smoke.
***Note: One of the Monterey Park victims was a Filipino-American man and father, Valentino Alvero, who loved to dance.***
Enter the Midwest, not to be outdone: In Ohio where we live, a white man recently shot up a Japanese-owned grocery store in Cincinnati, even though he was legally prohibited from owning guns. A South Asian family was also found dead in their Columbus home due to a murder-suicide caused by interpersonal violence. And in neighboring Indiana, earlier this month, a white woman stabbed a Chinese college student in the head multiple times simply because she was Asian.
And on, and on, and on…
And yet.
More than three thousand miles away, as we ensconced in our honeymoon bubble in Portugal, the headlines told us a different story about America.
Davos elites regaled us for our newly-reinforced power on the global stage. Their begrudging admiration of America’s strengthened leadership of the West in the face of Putin’s failing war on democracy. We were going to send our biggest and strongest tanks to Ukraine dammit! (And Germany, of course, would follow suit.)
Certain Europeans may have been salty about the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, but that was more due to their economic anxieties about no longer being able to compete as quickly, efficiently, and innovatively as us. (Not our problem, although Biden did somewhat tweak it to make it less “Made In America” vibes. 🤷♀️)
No matter how many odd looks we got or semi-whispers we heard about being “those Americans” while out at restaurants, the facts remained. The dollar was strong. Europe needed our tanks. The midterms narrowly saved democracy for much of the U.S., and in the eyes of Europe, America still led the world, as raggedy, divided, and solipsistic as we had become in the Trumpian era. Or maybe had always been.
And yet.
As powerful as we seemed to the rest of the world, inside, America was still ripping itself apart.
So many of us blind to the evils of racism, white supremacy, and violent militarism that have been killing us and our families. Ever since this country was founded.
Asians murdering Asians.
Seniors shooting other seniors.
Farmworker attacking fellow farmworkers.
Black cops killing another Black man.
I was far away from all of this, and yet.
RIP Tyre Nichols.
You deserved to live and shine your light.
#BlackLivesMatter
Dr. King: “Beyond Vietnam” (1967)
(Pt II forthcoming)