Article: I Love to Wear the US Flag Pin

May 3, 2008
Op-Ed Contribution

I Love to Wear the US Flag Pin

By PABLO OMONTE

LIMA

During the Democratic primaries I've learnt of occassions when Senator Obama showed he doesn't like much to wear the stars & stripes flag pin on his lapel.

Quite often when I'm in the USA, on several binational meetings in Lima, or even at some gatherings at home I love to wear it, being of course the Peruvian nationality the only one I have.

How does it come?

It probably began when in the early 70ties, as a kid, I used to admire a US family who lived at the next corner of my home in bucolic Huánuco, a small city 400 km north-eastern of Lima. The father was a LDS missionary and his wife and their several children were all nice but most importantly they were very kind to eachother and to everyone else. You could truly feel they were somehow closer to God, I thought, in contrast to mine - also a good looking family - but which in spite visiting the Catholic mass every Sunday and having many nuns and high ranked clericals as close relatives had our parents and us children involved in frequent disagreements in- and outdoors.

Soon, as nationalist and anti-American dictator Velasco turned rougher, many US missionaries left the country and so did that cherished North American family. I missed them everyday I went to school and passed by the emptied house at the neighboring corner.

During the military regime English classes became insignificant by law and I had to make an extra effort to learn a bit more of the language of those people I fell in love with. However, this was almost impossible even at the most renowned high-school in town. My poor English level notwithstanding I tried fervently to win a one-year scholarship for a US college with support of Rotarian friends of my father. The process offered hope but should take much longer than expected.

Meanwile, in the midst of the returning democracy and the weak Belaunde presidency it was high time for me to start college in Peru although not at UNI, the best Engineering University in Lima because it was plagued by strikes and the scaring influence of Shining Path.

The place to go was the Catholic University, where I couldn't grow comfortably because it didn't transpire the freedom I desired for an academic institution. Luckily, before one year went over I saw a placard announcing scholarships for engineering studies in Germany. Overcoming the initial opposition of my family - because of my young age - I applied, and became selected.

In August 1982 started my European journey.

Being pretty talkative and a charmeur since childhood, in the first years I just enjoyed to have a huge success finding friendship among young people. However, the more I grasped the Teutonic language and understood the nuances during conversations I found that some older people but mostly those in a powerful position disliked at the bottom of their hearts a bright newcomer like me and coincidentally also despised the USA.

As I became aware of this, I started to review my interest in building a possible future in Germany. However to completely decide about it I thought I had to learn more about how their elite think, and went over - besides coping with my electronics engineering studies - to diligently read the editorials of their leading journals like Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, Spiegel, and Stern.

In 1988, one year before graduating as a Diplom Ingenieur, I arrived to the conclusion that the German elite as the bellwether of Europe couldn't shake off its anti-Americanism and that it would prefer to build upon their contempt for the so called Melting Pot instead enlighten their countrywomen and -men to reach to higher milestones based on a honestly cooperative relationship with the USA.

At the same time I began to spend money in buying those then expensive Time Magazine, Newsweek, International Herald Tribune, and sometimes National Review to learn more about the American ideals, mentality, and worldview with the permanent support of an Englisch-Deutsch Wörterbuch. My best hopes became indeed satisfied by reading lots of editorials and articles. Bill Safire, Art Buchwald, and Bill Buckley were among my favorites.

Meanwhile, as my way of thinking became well known among co-scholars, friends, and later colleagues and members of the Führungskader at Siemens in the early 90ties, I began to be treated as an enemy who deserved to get undermined.

Around 15 years have passed since I moved out and in the meantime I believe Germany has soften homemade sentiments of its arrogant 80ties towards America.

Concluding...

. My love for the USA which began at children's age, got only diamond-strong in Europe;

. Even if I relish to have found in wonderful Lima - for pundits a New York City of Latin America - the hub of my forthcoming activities, I keep dreaming of a united continent from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego as a key step to achieve a genuinely united World like Albert Einstein yearned for;

. I can not avoid to admonish the ignominious 'gda' expression disparaged by confused pastor Wright; and

. I want to heartedly extoll: God Bless America!!!