| Photo by Leon Wu on Unsplash
Part VI of “Proactive People Must Protect Their Own Neighborhood” Series
This journalist was writing this column last night when he noticed a posting by Dr. Clarita Carlos, a distinguished professor at the University of the Philippines. Her style on Facebook is to post a sentence that ends in a double question mark. She posted: “Has America’s Exceptionalism reached its NADIR??”
The column was about creating changes for the better in a small city in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California. Yes, the City of West Covina became the U.S. residence of this Overseas Filipino writer (OFW) since 1994. He and his family moved from New York to Southern California in May 1988.
So, this columnist instead posted—as a reply — the draft of his column on Dr. Clarita’s Facebook Timeline, as the op-ed piece was also about “American Exceptionalism”. Here is the first part of what was posted on Facebook:
@ Dr. Clarita Carlos Yes, insofar as the current national political leaders are concerned. But many of them are senior White Caucasians, mostly not “Super Agers”. They also call it “American Exceptionalism,” which is a myth. Yes, fiction — as many of the country’s aging political, socioeconomic, and even religious leaders have promoted as if it were reality.
So, this West Covina-based journalist argues that its nadir has been reached hypothetically by the old (and getting older) White leaders. A real multiethnic and interfaith “American Land of Exceptionalism” will be reinvented by today’s up-and-coming young men and women, many of whom are success stories.
And they will be the prime movers of a better and brighter future. There are studies that by 2050, the minorities will compose the majority of the biggest-and-richest states. White people will still dominate by a slim plurality the poorest 10-to-20 states of the United States. There will, of course, be many good and talented young and professional White-Caucasian Americans to help their peers from the minority ranks.
Let me give you an example of why many minority communities will dominate the future of the U.S.A: It is public knowledge that many Caucasian families do not encourage their children to take up college. Why? At age 18, they are left on their own to finish their schooling and find their own shelter (residence).
“A real multiethnic and interfaith “American Land of Exceptionalism” will be reinvented by today’s up-and-coming young men and women, many of whom are success stories. And they will be the prime movers of a better and brighter future. There are studies that by 2050, the minorities will compose the majority of the biggest-and-richest states.”
But not minority families, which do not kick out children once they reach 18. They are welcome to stay in their original bedrooms and household facilities while they are single. It is also a fact that many high-valedictorians, salutatorians, and honor students come from the ranks of minority clans. Yes, even in a small city of West Covina that has only a population of 110K, some 90K of it is primarily a rainbow coalition of minority Americans and immigrants.
For instance, my wife and I have only seven grandchildren. Five of them were raised in West Covina and are college graduates. One of them graduated as magna cum laude (in Communications). Our second-eldest granddaughter finished her master’s in Fitness Medicine in Northern CA, after earning a degree in Kinesiology as an honor student, even though she was also working for her alma mater, a Catholic university. I will not share more about our eldest granddaughter (a nurse) and the two grandsons unless you would like me to.
The sixth one finished high school in North Carolina, and she graduated summa cum laude. Her younger sister (the 7th grandchild) worked her way through the same high school as a student tennis coach.
On the other hand, my sister and her fellow Sorsoganon (Filipino) husband have only three sons, also all college graduates. One of them was summa cum laude in civil engineering, another cum laude in dentistry, and the third an honor student in pharmacy.
This column describes just four granddaughters and three nephews of its author to illustrate how the next generations of Filipino Americans, who now number nearly 5 million, and their households are earning collectively more than $ 92 billion per year. This writer has eight sisters in the U.S., and all of them have bright children who are all professionals.
This discussion on American Exceptionalism will be continued in this Sunday’s column.
