Salma " Unlock The Imprisonned Bird "

SALMA RAYDAN

ESLINTG-100
September, 26, 2011

Unlock the Imprisoned Bird



Imagine you are an imprisoned bird that cannot find anyone to talk to or to ask for help. When you feel alone and find out that the people around you look just like robots, then you will know the meaning of social life.
That is what happened to me after I came to America. I spent thirteen hours on a trip from Lebanon to Chicago, dreaming of the moment when I would reach the land of the “American dream”; I was expecting that I was coming to Plato’s city where you could have a rich life, live well and engage in a lovely social life. But not everything shining is gold. A smile and a hug do not mean that you are my friend and you are welcome inside my house. I soon learned that many of the American people are so cautious about getting involved with the foreigners. This made it hard for me to become a part of this new culture. I got disappointed and suddenly all those images of the American lovely social life in my head just flew away. Although in America we could have everything. All the respect that we deserve and all the human rights that we ask for it, there’s something missing outside the doors, which is the ambiance of social life.
In Lebanon, social life is considered as a cultural richness by sharing different opinions and experiences from the people around us. These kinds of relations are an essential step for building a healthy society, where the person is more precious by his/her relations with the others. The way we welcome our guests, the smile and the hug, means that he is a part of our life. In addition, the social life has another effect which is by helping the people to stand up together. There has been a war in my country every ten years for thousands of years and there is poverty and deprivation, but if you walk into my neighborhood, you will be surprised. How could they tolerate that?

I could tell you, the reason is due to the social relations between them because my neighbors are next to me, not by place, but by heart, and they will remedy my pain without demand. When a person is enrolled into the society he is living in, he will improve his own confidence by the way he is engaging and participating into the society world not the personnel one inside his house. In this way, he is offering many thoughts and experiences he already tried, and confronting other patterns of thinking. This period of time is fateful for his concepts and his previous way of thinking. At this point he will see the other world, the social world, where he could run from his stressful life to the social activities sharing his smile and tears with others because others they do care. It is the place where he does not feel lonely. Even if he does not have a family he will be redeemed by those people.

That is why I had a big problem when I moved here. Wherever I go, I do not feel this ambience. Everybody is polite, and everything is under control. You could also say that almost everything is perfect.



However, where is the spirit? Each time I ride the bus, I am mesmerized by the people how lovely they look. And then I had a talk with some and blocked by others and here it comes the end, the bus stopped and everybody will go in his way, and I should be satisfied by that. Every time I tried to have friendship, I got limited profile friends, where the relation is besieged by some little activities.











As a result most of us are going to ask ourselves how could I judge that fast on this multinational community. My answer is reckoned in this story. The first hour after my airplane landed safely at Chicago O’Hare, all the passengers finished filling out their papers quickly with the usual inspection, except for some other Arabic passengers and me. We were subjected with an intense inspection because of our identity as Arabic.


I had to answer hundreds of questions “where are you going and are you Muslim?” ” Who’s the last person you talked to?” ” Did you get married for love or for business? “I spent four hours in the immigration room; I was so tired and scared they were going to refuse me. It was an unbearable situation because when people get treated in this manner, it makes them feel insignificant and ignoble people. I cannot forget how hard and painful it was to feel unlikable by the surroundings and to feel suspected that I was wearing a bomb.




I left my family and all my lovely friends to have a normal respectful life full of peace and love, and at the first test I failed with my expectations. Those facts made me hate myself for the identity I belong to. Those issues prod me to imagine this idea about how hard it is to have a social life in America. Nevertheless, I will keep trying. I cannot live alone, America is my country now and we have everything we dreamed about, including respect, good life, education and human rights.

But we have to protect this wealth, by giving air to her lungs, to make the people feel their humanity, not just ostensibly. To meet a new person is not something you have to worry about. He is new in his culture, he is a stranger by his tradition and he is an immigrant for a reason to have a happy good life not a criminal bad one. Only the healthy social life is the solution and the hope that we have to protect for a better America. A Social life is the window for that little bird to run and sing and feel how much the humanity is precious to live by sharing and caring for it.