That's Gratitude For You

When I was a kid, I watched Sesame Street like it was on the verge of being cancelled every day.  I even watched some of the feature-length movies with many of the characters from the show, especially Follow That Bird.  I even recently bought that movie for my niece (who is now, shockingly, about to turn 3) in order to pass the entertainment on to the next generation.

I don't remember much of Follow That Bird, except that somehow Big Bird got lost and wound up somewhere in Asia, possibly China.  He struggled to find his way home, trying to find anyone who could help him along the way.  He eventually did find a woman who could help him, and when she spoke English clearly, he was shocked, saying, "She speaks American!"

The line was obviously meant as a joke, and by now you're probably wondering why I'm talking about any of this.  First, thanks for indulging me for a minute, but now I'll get to where I had planned on going all along.

I brought this memory up because it was the first thing I thought of when I had read about the controversy surrounding Coca-Cola's "America the Beautiful" ad it ran during Super Bowl 48 Sunday night.

Here's the ad, in case you want to refresh your memory:

Pretty awesome, right?  Pays tribute to the various cultures who live in this country, and how language isn't a barrier that separates patriotism, right?

So why is there such negative blowback to a commercial with such great intentions?

The link I posted there mentions Twitter exploding with all kinds of xenophobic reactions to the commercial, made by people who clearly missed the point of what the commercial was trying to do.  There wasn't any political agenda behind this commercial at all; it was designed to highlight people of all ethnic backgrounds and languages sharing the love for America.  What's wrong with that?

I also question those who claim this commercial is liberal and drives this country further apart as to whether any of them have family who speak another language.  I'm a first-generation American; my father was born in Lebanon and came to the U.S. not being able to speak a word of English when he was 20.  If you met him now, you'd never know he was born outside the States, but I do have plenty of relatives who speak very broken English at best, starting with my grandmother.  I can only speak very slowly and very simple dialogues with her, so I wonder if any of the people who hate this Coca-Cola commercial have relatives who speak little to no English as well.

That brings me back to Follow That Bird.  I never would have thought that a simple line from Big Bird expressing shock that someone in a foreign country could speak "American" would come to have a tragically ironic and prophetic meaning today.  I don't know if Coca-Cola plans on responding to all the blowback from its ad, but I for one am disappointed to say the least that a number of Americans think this country is all about them and not for everyone.  It's sad to think that even now there is a significant number of people who want to isolate this country from people of other cultures who love America, even ones who live here legally.