So Many Of Us Cherish So Much So Little

In the United States, we are free to think, preach, print and parade. We have a democracy that is the envy of the world. We have so much here, yet appreciate it so little.

As I return this week after nine months as a Nieman fellow, at Harvard University, I have a lot of stories to tell my friends. I had a fantastic time as a Nieman Fellow, was one of 26 journalists from all over the world who traded daily deadlines for two semesters of study at Harvard University.

I can tell anecdotes about parties we enjoyed and I can discuss all the many lectures we attended. But I’m reluctant to tell the most interesting stories because I’m afraid I’ll get too choked up to finish them.

The best stories are the ones told by the 13 foreign Nieman fellows, many of whom came to Cambridge, Mass., to recover from the ordeals they had experienced in their own countries. In so much of the world, reporting news is not a career; it’s a heroic commitment.

One Nieman fellow was a Bosnian who arrived at Harvard with a bad limp, acquired while dodging sniper fire. Publishing Sarajevo’s newspaper is a daily act of surpassing courage.

Another Nieman Fellow was a Chinese journalist who spent years in prison for reporting the massacre at Tiananmen Square. Still another was a South African who faced threatening crowds to cover stories about her country’s end of apartheid.

Each week, a fellow stood before the group and told his or her life story. Typically, we Americans would recount how we went to college, got jobs and advanced our careers through canny moves. On alternating weeks, the foreign journalists would rise to tell us stories of extraordinary dedication to the cause of free speech.

One night, when the journalist from Cape Town finished describing life in South Africa during that country’s struggle toward democracy, I asked her what was her strongest impression of life in the United States.

She was most amazed by the lack of appreciation Americans have for their freedoms and affluence. She couldn’t understand why U.S. citizens spend so much time whining about relatively small problems. “This country is so first, first world, and yet everyone seems to be complaining all the time,” she said.

But she was looking forward to going home. Despite the challenges facing South Africa, the mood there is more optimistic than in the United States where life is seemingly so much better, she said.

In the midst of our Nieman year, when we U.S. journalists were especially aware of our many freedoms, it was jarring to hear about the extremist groups whose crazy ideas spurred the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. Right-wing militia men talked about their hatred of the U.S. government and how they felt so oppressed by evil leaders in Washington. That the extremists could speak their minds, print their own newspapers and form their own associations demonstrated how pathetically wrong their views are.

In the United States, we are free to think, preach, print and parade. We have a democracy that is the envy of the world. We have so much here and yet appreciate it so little.

Now, as I sit in my comfortable office safely tapping out my opinions, many of my foreign colleagues are heading back to their difficult, uncertain lives. I wish them well, and thank them for teaching me the most important lessons.

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