DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT

Portland, Oregon policewoman pepper spray a peaceful Occupy Portland demonstrator. Photo by Randy Rasmussen

In 1964, when  a military dictatorship aided and abetted by the American government took over my native Brazil,  I was absent from  the barricades. For most the next fifteen years during which  the army kept its collective booted foot on the neck of the Brazilian people, I was trying to make a life in the United States. Those were the years of Civil Rights marches and protests against the Vietnam and while I sympathised with protesters,  I wasn't an American citizen and that seemed a good reason to tend to my own business. I took classes, kept house,  tried to figure out how to fit in my new community, and that was that.
I became  an American citizen in 1976, following a visit to Brazil. I was on my way to my parents' when I had  a very scary encounter with an agent of the Sinistra, Brazil's legendar had played in putting the Brazilian  junta and its underlings in power. Having applied, I had five years in which  to change my mind--during that interval I could have opted to keep Brazilian citizenship. I had no second thoughts.This was the land of the free, right? I had had just enough of ioppression to see the glory of freedom. So,  I studied the American Constitution until there came the date of my interview with the INS. On the appointed day, I went to the local courthouse where a grouchy Migra desk jockey asked me  patronising questions such as,
"What do we celebrate on the Fourth of July?"
 I wanted to be quizzed on the  Constitution, but at the time I did not think that it was ever politic to  argue with suits.  Consequently, I made no hue and cry when this particular suit  insisted that I rethink my negative answer as to whether I would fight in a war. He did not even offer me the option of signing up as a medic.
"Go discuss this with your (American) husband or you are not going to be naturalised.," he said. I refrained from saying that the husband was a conscientious objector. As for the obvious sexism, those were dark days when women who fought for equal rights were dismissed as bra burners. I rethought the question. Soon thereafter I joined  half a dozen newly mintedAmericans and their families at a Chinese restaurant where a civic association bought us a meal. After dessert, a jolly member of the association handed me an American flag. That was that.
 Or not. Here and there I ask myself if there is such a thing as a real naturalisation--the word irks me anyway. I was not unnatural when I was a Brazilian citizen. Thing is the authenticity of my American citizenship often seems to be in  the eye of the beholder . In my experience, there are plenty of beholders out that who think that the only real Americans are those who happen to be have been born in The USA. Largely, in this country of immigrants, neither my birthplace nor my Brazilian accent seem to matter much except when the enlightened people I meet make concessions to my cultural heritage. They are, I am glad to say, the majority.I have not met the other kind since my ex-husband's divorce lawyer suggested. ten year ago,  that I go back to tBrazil,  where, he argued, I could live very on my share of the spoils. I suggested that he returned to Scotland, home of his immigrant forebears.  for all I know, he did.

As for the spoils, they  were sufficient, but not lush enough to buy neither a  house in the Hamptons or a teeny weeny yatch.  I am very much one of the 99 percent. That, and the fact that I have seen oppression at work keeps me from wishing to be a mere spectator in the OWS movement. I might not join the protesters at the barricades. Not yet, anyway. What  I will do what I will do is  to try to generate support for the cause. Starting a petition to ban  PERF (Police Executive Research Forum) from dictating policy and brutalising  peaceful OWS demonstrators.
You can read about PERF here,
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/19/1038054/-Confirmed:-Police-Executive-Research-Forum-(PERF)-coordinating-Occupy-raids
To sign the petition, please follow this link,
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-and-state-governors-stop-perf-involvement-and-use-of-force-at-peaceful-ows-demonstrations