It Occurs To Me That I Am America

Introduction by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Edited by Jonathan Santlofer

Simon and Schuster 2018

This is not your law school treatise on the United States Constitution, but a literary and visual homage to that defining document, the great protector in need of protection. Though the title may be challenging, this unique anthology presents free-standing yet thematically connected pieces, in praise not of country but of the Constitution. It will not be read in a single sitting or even sequentially, but the reader will choose among literary and artistic icons.

In his introduction, Viet Thanh Nguyen draws us close in the telling of how he, a child refugee from the U.S war in Vietnam, “became an American” while sitting in a local public library in California. Having no English speakers at home, he taught himself to read by turning to stories of the American Revolution and the Civil War.Through books and words, this Pulitzer Prize winner and current MacArthur “genius” found his love of justice and liberty. His introduction sets the tone for the themes that follow not by chanting, ”USA!” but by defending the Constitution and its promises, fulfilled and unfulfilled, of civil rights and civil liberties, grace and humanity, democracy and fair play.

The volume sparkles with the words and art of such acclaimed authors and artists as Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, Walter Mosley, Art Spiegelman, Marilyn Minter, Louise Erdrich, Julia Alvarez, Michael Cunninghan and many more. All of the selections are original, created for this book. Each, with a dazzling sentence or image, delivers a jewel about becoming or being an American. It is imaginative, sometimes playful, but always profound. While the inside cover reproduces the Constitution, within a few pages painter Jane Kent (whose work hangs in the Whitney) delivers her ominous version of the Constitution, one on which words are redacted—eliminated—by bold black strokes. Actions speaking louder than words.

Celebrated Yale Law Professor and writer Stephen L. Carter, in “The Lecturer,“ explores Yale at a time when, “No Negro [such as himself] dared step onto the campus,” except, like his own parents, to serve students and alumni. Perhaps forgetting that he was there to carry bags and nothing more, the father brags about the institution that employs him, impressing on his son, “Harvard trained its men to run the country, and Yale trained its men to run the world.” Meantime Carter, Yale's William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, is talking to us about race, politics, the FBI, Cuba, HUAC, elections, KKK, revolution and, well, the history and laws of the country. And when you least expect it, there in the middle of the piece, is the full-page, “Late America,” by the influential figurative painter Eric Fischl (whose work is shown at the Met and MOMA) depicting a child wrapped in an American flag.

On the tragic-comic side, Brooklyn-born Susan Isaacs writes “Getting Somewhere” in the persona of the wife of a wealthy shopping mall developer (she is actually married to a New York criminal defense lawyer). Driving her BMW convertible in Miami not long after 9/11, she is caught up in a police action involving unwanted Haitians who have just entered the U.S. where the Atlantic Ocean meets southern Florida. As in her best-selling novels, Ms. Isaacs is somehow funny while describing disaster, Yet she makes the point in one solemn line: “They must've known America was no refuge for them, but in their hearts they believed it was.“ Weren't they, like my grandparents, she wonders, coming to America to escape something terrible? In fact, she is witnessing something terrible, and the fashionista forgets who she is, or maybe discovers who she is, and responds to the scene around her, springing into action, even though she “could spend her menopause years in prison.”

Taking an entirely different and multi-layered journey is Ha Jin. During his five years in the Chinese army, Ha Jin's greatest discovery was that people in China were not born equal. Yes, he was shocked to learn that only certain Chinese citizens were allowed to live in the capital city. Later, while earning a Ph.D. at Brandeis, he had another big shock: an aggrieved American citizen can sue the U.S. government. Impossible! He marveled at “…a legal system that can guarantee civil rights … whereas in China, all you can do is obey.”

Emboldened by his safety in Massachusetts, Ha Jin, the graduate student, dared to speak out during the protests and massacre in Bejing's Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government retaliated by confiscating his passport, leaving him without a country until seven years later, when he became a naturalized American citizen and swore to uphold the Constitution. But America broke this poet's heart. “The US government's words and deeds [about China] didn't match .…For the sake of business opportunities, the U.S. grew reluctant to defend human rights….” Ha Jin “felt betrayed, my belief in American idealism shattered.” Then, in 2017, a federal judge, striking the president's immigration ban, restored his belief that the Constitution rules. Still, on this winding road, he explicitly bifurcates his on-again-off-again love affair with America and his devotion to the Constitution.

The author of famed investigative detective best sellers Sara Paretsky, meanwhile, “clings to a romantic notion that the framers were serious when they said the Constitution exists to 'establish justice and promote the general welfare.'” But just in case they aren't taken seriously, “Safety First,” a frightening, perhaps forward-looking mini version of her crime genre, portrays a closed-door trial of a woman gynecologist charged with and convicted of “rendering medical assistance to undocumented aliens and with violating the sanctity of life of future American citizens, [namely, unborn persons].” Judge Sessions presides.

Starring the U.S. Constitution, this masterful collection brings together, through the arts, the daunting legal and social issues surrounding us. The message: we need the Constitution and the Constitution needs us.

Emily Jane Goodman, formerly a New York State Supreme Court judge, is a lawyer and writer.