Adding all else to America

The 2016 Presidential elections in the United States gripped the attention of the whole world. America is truly the country of the world, the melting-pot consisting of every race on earth, yet still reaching out to attract new immigrants through its Diversity Immigration policy. The history of past civilisations reveals that with accomplishments in worldly matters, the people of a great nation could become conceited, arrogant and self-centred. This is the challenge America faces in today’s world. The resistance to terrorism is truly a battle of ideas, than of arms. This demands an expansion of awareness. Humility is a sine qua non for gaining knowledge. As an objective admirer of the American nation, the question that fills me, is “what else does America need?” or in Yankee parlance, “what is the new (next) frontier for America?

On July 4, 2004, American Independence Day, I was at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, delivering a letter of invitation to Richard Williams, from Governor Daniel of Ogun State, requesting Venus and Serena Williams to visit Nigeria and set up a Tennis Academy for Africa. At the All England Tennis & Croquet Club, there was also Godwin Kienka who chronicled tennis in Africa with his Tennis Africa magazine. Boris Becker autographed my copy of his biography, in which he described his admiration for America where “everything is ten times bigger and louder than in Europe.” Also in the book, Boris revealed his inner turmoil despite all the fame and fortune. At the height of his tennis- playing career, as he travelled the world hitting tennis balls across nets, the question within him craving for a true answer was “why are we in this world?”

The reality of life on earth is one of the problems arising from our misuse of the God-given free will, with which we humans sometimes choose to deviate from our God-created caring essence. With that ability to decide and select, I have chosen to focus on the positive.

In 1976, a few days before leaving America and returning to Nigeria, I went on a valedictory drive all over Long Island New York with a companion, Elizabeth Good, The Long Island Expressway runs from Queens Midtown Tunnel, 130 miles eastwards to Riverhead and joining routes to Montauk Point in the South and Orient Point in the North Fork. The expressway is supported by the Northern State Parkway with the Bell and Southern State Parkways. Traversing these east-west routes are many north-south highways. The archipelago was my terrain for the study of road development, to be applied in later years for contribution to road policy in Nigeria. During the drive, I told my female companion that I would love to write a book on “all that is good about America.” I informed her that my history teacher at King’s College Lagos, Mrs. Oyesiku, had dubbed me “the American boy” because I was fascinated by American history, especially of the original 13 colonies denoted by the 13 white and red stripes of the American flag the Star – Spangled Banner.

Considering the possibility of re-incarnation, could the one (born in Africa this time) have been a part of colonial America; as a white man or a black slave? Our unknown past compels humility. I did not get to write the book, despite Elizabeth’s prodding.

The long delay was more than the usual procrastinator in me, for it gave me a deep insight into Americans during my second sojourn in America from 1998 to 2003. As a writer, I followed a strong inner prompting to remind Americans about the heritage of their nation’s founding fathers. This became necessary because their national credo: “In God We Trust” (inscribed in every important document of the Republic, as well as on the all mighty Dollar) was being challenged by a determined horde of professed Satan’s devotees who invoked the principle of separation of State from Religion to campaign for the removal of the sacred Word “God” from everything. They did not know that a belief (or conviction) in God was not tantamount to subscription to any earthly religion. I had learnt from Mike Sobotka that a person can be devout without being religious!

The visitor from Africa called for faithfulness to the founding principles: liberty, rule of law, and an open door policy for immigrants, engraved on the Statue of Liberty: “Bring me your huddled masses…” There is also freedom of religion, with the abiding message that “you are free to worship in any way you feel inwardly connected to your Maker, but let your conduct conform to the fact that “there is but one code of morality for men; whether acting as an individual or in a group,” as Thomas Jefferson stated in the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. Above all, realise that the American nation was founded on deep spiritual truths because the founding fathers were illumined individuals. In the early days of the union, a person could not aspire to a position of leadership unless he was enlightened in some basic truths of existence, such as were learnt as initiates in one Order or another. The rites of passage involved education in classics, mathematics and philosophy, such that the person would have evolved into a deep thinker who devoted time to seeking understanding of the “mysteries” of life and existence.

The tragedy of contemporary America, however, is the fixation with physicality and a corresponding effort to evade any contemplation of the truths of existence. The unstated credo of daily routine in America could be described as “keep yourself so busy physically so as not to have time to ponder the great indismissable questions of existence, such as were raised by Boris Becker: what is the purpose of existence? Even worse is that each person proudly parades ignorance as “my opinion” and also defines his own meaning of any word. You hear such talk as “to me spirituality means this or that.” The question is what is the meaning of the word? As we did not make up the words of the language, shouldn’t we make an effort to find out the meaning of each word? This is not done in a society where everyone is so opinionated and many no longer know how to say “I don’t know,” either on trivial things or sublime issues. Without realising that he does not know, a man will not have the urge to seek. The ultimate result is a society of pervasive ignorance concerning basic truths of existence, such as that the human being is not a physical entity but a spiritual energy animating the physical body for the duration of life on earth. As many Americans are Judeo-Christians, have they not read in the Bible that “the body is the temple of the living spirit?” The truth is that dogmatic religiosity does not allow the human being to draw knowledge from the sacred book upon which a religion was founded. Thus, in many cases, the incorrect human attitude about religion becomes an impediment to spirituality.

Therefore, beyond the euphoria of elections as a routine in the system of government, what needs to be added to America is the acceptance of the spiritual dimension. Gladly, there are signs of progress. There was once when the mainstream media would not touch any subject on spirituality. It was so bad that people were afraid of being called “kooks” for speaking about spiritual realities. What a refreshing development that CNN’s Larry King featured “mediums” like Sylvia Browne and James Van Praagh on his show. The credit must go to his producer and the researchers. Moreover, Larry King did more for his fellow Americans than is generally recognised. He once said: “The only time I learn is when I listen.” All Americans would benefit from imbibing that principle. Also, the CBS Television Network aired the programme, “Crossing Over” by John Edwards.

If Americans, as individuals, lack the humility to seek and do not progress to accept spiritual enlightenment, their great nation will go the way of many preceding civilisations, which collapsed after reaching the zenith of material achievements!

• Akindele wrote from Abeokuta.