Khizr Khan — What America Means

There’s a lot of flag waving these days. Often with no clue what it really means.

Khizr Khan knows what it means. He got it as a law student in Pakistan, in a course on comparative constitutions. There he read America’s, and the Declaration of Independence, and was blown away. He read them as manifestoes of human dignity, a concept alien to his native Pakistan (and many other places).

And human dignity was foremost in Khizr Khan’s mind at that sublime moment when, finally, he stepped into a court room and took the oath as an American citizen.

WAMC radio’s Joe Donahue interviewed him about his book, An American Family. Hearing the interview was deeply moving and inspiring.

What Khizr Khan also considers central to America is human caring. Such ideals were instilled in his son, Humayun; Khan told of Humayun’s standing up for a bullying victim in grade school; assuring safety for female college classmates; and finally sacrificing his life in Iraq to protect fellow soldiers.

When Khizr Khan, his wife beside him, spoke at the Democratic convention about Humayun’s heroism, he offered to share his cherished personal copy of the constitution with Donald Trump. Instead, Trump badmouthed Khan and his family.

That piece of filth is not fit to lick Khizr Khan’s shoes.

Khizr Khan is a great American. He’s also a Muslim and an immigrant — both categories many “Americans” today demonize. But his story testifies to why now, more than ever, America needs immigrants. It’s because, much unlike flag-waving “America Firsters,” immigrants like Khizr Khan have a true appreciation for the ideals and values that made America great. Without a population that understands, and lives, those ideals and values, no amount of flag waving will make it great again.

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