To the Editor:
I could not help reading Jen Daniel's opinion "French Unity of Spirit Lacking In Americans" (Jan. 10, 1996) with amusement. Daniel begins her criticism of Americans with their diet as if that is one of the largest concerns of a society. Would Daniel have the FDA impose national dietary standards so that everyone would "eat more, exercise less, and still look like toothpicks?" Isn't it generally true that eating moderately, exercising regularly and looking tone and fit, is the healthy way to live life? Maybe in Daniel's world, she would have everyone looking as healthy as Kate Moss.
But what Daniel states is the real difference between France and the U.S. "is its ancient national spirit." What Daniel doesn't seem to realize is that nationalism has its problems.
For example, the French public school system strongly opposes any sort of multiculturalism. The French have no problem with foreigners coming into their country to learn. However, they will learn about France, what it means to be French and how to do things the French way. Multiculturalism is looked upon with scorn and is considered a failure of the American education system.
France's apparent national unity is due to the fact that it doesn't have to deal with the social problems that a multiethnic/multicultural society like America has to deal with. We could be like France if we support Pat Buchanan's isolationist views and put America first. But it seems this is not desirable for most Americans.
America has struggled more vigorously for and has made more progress in equality than any other country on the face of the planet. It has given the freedom to its people to be anyone they want to be and to live any way they want to live, whether it be the American way or not. We can forgo many of our freedoms of individuality for the sake of national unity because that is what it will take. A government imposing a mandate for national unity could get it done. But if we cherish our freedom, we must and will struggle in order to find our national identity.
It is interesting that someone who enthusiastically states "that it is important that all Americans try to begin to support each other" is a founder and an editor of a campus publication, Snapshots of Color, (which advocates multicultural literary talent), that excludes non-minorities from participation. In France, where all Frenchmen (that is, those who embrace everything fundamentally French) supposedly support each other, such displays of multiculturalism wouldn't and couldn't exist.
Daniel's criticism of America is not unfounded, but it lacks the understanding for the cause of America's problems.
