America... Between the Atlantic and the Pacific

Faithful to her promise to the readers, Mrs. Salwa Mahmasani Moumina here presents her delightful impressions and observations of the New World, after her visit to America, which lasted about two months.

We thank our friend Salwa, and ask for more if possible...

There, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, lies a great country surging with renaissance, life, and glory. And the soul, as it travels through its expanses, is filled with rapture, admiration, and deep emotion!

For when a person sees what there is in the far-off world, he cannot but remember his homeland and his country, and long to see in it such means of advancement as would make it the equal of the other advanced countries upon this radiant, turning star.

• Everything in America speaks of energy, wakefulness, and vitality...

• There, the universities and hospitals hold thousands... and the museums, the exhibitions, and the national libraries display masterpieces to the millions...

• And the factories, equipped with the newest machines, are worked by armies of mighty forces night and day.

• I saw women in the various fields of work, young and old, and I saw one of them leading a political election demonstration and addressing the crowds!...

• How often I stood in the hall of the Security Council thinking: Will it ever succeed in spreading justice and security among men?

And how often I asked myself:

• Where lies the source of greatness in America? And where is the foundation on which their glory is built?

• Why are we superior as individuals and small as a whole?

And where are we from these means that take the cause of thought by the hand, and take by the hand the powers latent in man, that they may blossom forth, ripe, creative, inventive?

What reveals the essence of a people is what you find in their country of these means that raise their standing, and grant them strength, security, sovereignty, and success.

And one cannot escape certain factors that weigh upon the conscience — nay, that draw a black veil over the heart — as one compares and weighs, and looks at one's own country with the eye of true, disinterested patriotism.

In this brief hasty sketch, I am at a loss where to begin speaking of America. She contains such causes of advancement as would require huge volumes to give them their fill of study and scrutiny, and to render them what learning demands by right of publication and proclamation.

Shall I pass over the enchanting beauty which the Supreme Creator bestowed upon her, so that she sleeps upon the arms of the two oceans, great and magnificent, her face radiant with the waters of her rivers and lakes, her plains and forests and matchless waterfalls, and her fresh green hills, where soul and eye draw abundant provision from the springs of beauty in her regions?

And I start with alarm at saying of her the word "sleeps," she in whom everything speaks of energy, wakefulness, and glowing, radiant vitality.

From universities and hospitals that hold thousands, to museums, exhibitions, and national libraries gathering the spoils of thought and the creations of minds, which they display as masterpieces to the millions of thirsting minds that search to gain ever more knowledge and learning.

And there are public gardens, buildings and bridges, playing fields and swimming pools, theaters, and ordered, well-planned roads, in the belly of the earth and upon its back, such as bewilder the mind.

And those vast stretches over which rise the factories, equipped with the newest machines, worked by armies of mighty forces night and day, in steadfastness, diligence, and energy.

I saw some of them teeming with lights in the darkness of the night, and there appeared then to my mind those talents lying latent in the sons of my country, sunk in deep slumber in plain and mountain, lost and squandered.

And I pictured, in the depths of my heart, those strong, active hands of our young men, seeking work and finding none, and so growing used to idleness, and losing the true life that is the due of youth.

No unemployment spreads there — for all the abundance of productive machines, and the multitude of automatic methods that save time and labor — everyone who seeks work finds it, in every field, and so lives free and dignified, relying upon himself.

And I saw woman in the various fields, young girl and old woman alike. Neither does age deter her, nor dependence keep her seated.

I saw the young girls walking from early morning with grace, energy, and speed, each toward her destination. And I saw one of them leading a political election demonstration, carrying a flag which she waved to hundreds of men and women, who followed her, shouting what she shouted. And I heard her address the crowds that listened to her, and I found between her and the man none of those vast distances which still lie between man and woman in our country. Nor shall I ever forget that lady of eighty years whom I met one night at one of the stations, waiting with the travelers for the train, to journey to Niagara Falls. My ears disbelieved when she told me her age, while I marveled at her energy and her self-reliance, and honored her, as I set her side by side with the eighty-year-old women of our Eastern lands.

And there, in the mighty building — the United Nations building — where the leaders of the world gather to decide its fate, and to decide the fates of the peoples in every quarter of the earth. Will they ever, I wonder, succeed in removing the powers of evil from existence?!!

And the Security Council! How often I stood in its hall, thinking and asking myself: Will it ever succeed in spreading justice and security among men, and in removing doubt, anxiety, and fear from the depths of their bewildered souls? Would that it might!

And would that they might attain the liberty of the peoples at which they aim! In America stands the greatest statue that symbolizes it, looking out over New York from the small green island amid the waters of the Atlantic, which sway like a heavy metal, a layer of transparent, rippling water glistening upon its surface, where the small boats plow along, carrying those who go to see the statue of that idol which the peoples have worshipped since the earliest ages.

And we cannot but ask: What is the motive power in America? Perhaps then we may be able to fix the places of weakness in ourselves.

For we, as individuals, and outside our own surroundings, can hold our own with the individuals of the advanced nations. And many of us surpass the rest of the students in their universities.

I know a man of my country to whom his American professors said, in homage to his brilliance: Would that you were an American. And I know another, studying in one of their universities, to whom they said: You are keener than those who taught us.

Why, then, do we shrink as a whole, and lag behind the human procession in the modern world renaissance?

Where lies the source of greatness in America? Is it in her leaderships, which do not tear at one another for private interests? Or in the firm union among her various states, across those vast, far-flung lands, and among her various individuals throughout the length and breadth of their country — a union which foreign currents do not rend, nor crooked inclinations, nor destructive, poisonous passions?

Or is it in her appreciation of talents, and her veneration of her men, her heroes, who wrote the history of America with their struggle and gave her, out of their own lives, freedom and life? From George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to Will Rogers and Walt Disney, and others... and yet others — to whom she has raised statues, or whose houses she has preserved, keeping up the gardens around them and making them places of pilgrimage, visited by tourists, countrymen and strangers alike, in reverence and awe. Thus she kindles high resolve and quickens dignity in souls.

Where is the foundation on which their glory is built?

Is it in the living, energetic people, confident of the justice of its institutions and the democracy of its laws? Or in that elect company which administers and organizes, leads and directs and draws the plans?

No doubt in this, together with other factors, lies the source of America's strength and of her mighty renaissance. And this hasty sketch will not suffice to speak of it all.

For every renaissance has a spirit that kindles, and lights up souls and minds. And the life of peoples has its causes and its means: it drinks from knowledge, endures by work, and thrives on sincerity in patriotism. And whoever desires to rise must take hold of these things and learn from them.