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The Sweat of Discourse By MAHIRA KAKKAR
At a bar recently, a friend and I were having a conversation with a young Boston Brahmin who was actively hitting on my friend. The man had gone to Brown, and like many an average graduate from a prestigious institution, he was moderately well read, but not really intelligent. In his attempts to impress us, he tried to display his knowledge of India, my home country. In the process, he was condescending and offensive. I smoothly put him in his place, and thought to myself, "Well done, Mahira!" Of course as a byproduct, I effectively killed the conversation and squelched any possibility of further dialogue.
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| Mahira Kakkar |
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This got me to thinking about the recent elections and how things went down. I will admit that I am as partisan as they come—I don't think being liberal is bad, and when Kerry conceded, I wept. And I'm not even a U.S. citizen! But what really got me was the general kicking below the belt that had been happening. Nobody said politics was pretty, but this year it seemed like veritable mud-wrestling: "Come see The Bible Belters vs. The Pretentious Times-Toting Northeasterners." Under the banner of "moral values" and "the war on terror," the whole country seemed to be divided. It seemed that America was moving into an era of isolationism that was segregating its people not only from the rest of the world, but also from one another. In the midst of this, the middle ground—the option for a clear-headed exchange of ideas—got lost. We were left with the debris of extremist standpoints on both sides of the arguments. I have virulently spoken out in the past. I know what it is to proclaim with the voice of a zealot. Of course, I always railed against the bad, the unjust, the deliberately blind, and used my keenly honed tongue only for good. But that's what all zealots think they're doing, isn't it?This is what disappoints me about the United States today. (No, this is not another tirade against the country—it has been very good to me and I am marrying an American whose fierce patriotism I respect.) America no longer seems like a beacon of hope. Growing up in a foreign country, America seemed to be a land of possibilities, where one was free to develop and maximize one's potential. It no longer appears that way to me—and not just because of the present administration, which is not faultless; how can you tout yourselves as liberators when you won't even grant people of your own country the freedom to marry whom they please, regardless of gender? That's a skewed perspective of liberty, isn't it? America's image as a holy grail of freedom is tarnished because it seems to have forgotten that freedom involves compromise and huge effort. It requires real dialogue, where people are willing to listen to opposing viewpoints and be prepared to keep the conversation going no matter how difficult. Perhaps that is too much to expect of America right now, because if the leaders of the country can't do that, then how can its people?
I am trying to write about this in a moderate way, without getting angry. It's tough. I do think that we need to re-examine what America really stands for—to itself as much as to the rest of the world. Certainly the next four years will show us the value of our decisions. I would venture to say, however, that people the world over are a little tired of loud-mouthed zealots—Michael Moore and otherwise. What we need now are people with clear vision who are willing to engage in the grit, the sweat of discourse. Those who don't think that staying entrenched in an ideal is heroic. I'm talking about people with imagination—and heart. After all, those are America's strengths … aren't they?Juilliard alumna Mahira Kakkar (Drama Division, Group 33) earned a Diploma in May 2004.
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