This title might look familiar if you read my review of the novel, “The Ugly American,” by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, or if you’ve read the book itself. In short, it is about misinformed American foreign policy decisions that do more harm than good for the United States and other countries. It is the book John F. Kennedy used to guide his creation of the United States Peace Corps. I told myself that I would continue to look back on the lessons in that book throughout my service, but I did not expect this reflection to come so soon.
My name is Langley Sebastian, and I am a change agent for the United States government. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. Before I continue, let it be known that my views do not represent the United States Peace Corps. Even more so, my views do not represent the United States government. I would not be writing this if my views represented my government.
Over two months ago, I took an oath to serve the beautiful country of Cameroon for 24 months, tasked with the mission of promoting world peace and friendship. I proudly took the oath to serve Cameroon, but I am ashamed to be an American. An American who does not see the same mission she was tasked to uphold represented in a country that assigned her that task.
My service confines me to the borders of Cameroon, but my heart and voice have no such restrictions. My heart aches for peace and friendship for all citizens of the world, but it’s wrenching for those in Palestine.
I have been told not to speak up on this issue for my safety. But anyone who knows me knows that silence and issues I care about will never go hand in hand. However, the genocide in Palestine is far from an issue of importance for me. The genocide against Palestinians is something I have learned about. I learned about it through the Holocaust, the Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda, the Rohingyas in Myanmar, the Darfuri people in Sudan, and the spineless conventions that swore it would never happen again because global powers would intervene beforehand.
Yet, here we are. As I write this, more than 10,000 innocent civilians have been brutally murdered by munitions that were fully funded by American tax dollars — with more on the way. The United States is single-handedly funding more senseless murders in the Middle East ONCE AGAIN, and for what? The Ben Gurion Canal and access to oil reserves off the coast of the Gaza Strip. Hamas is a cover to rid one of the most densely populated areas of land of its people for financial gain. I implore you to look it up.
I scroll through my social media and see bodies smothered by their own homes, orphaned children with blank stares and missing limbs in hospitals that are on Israel’s hit list, and overall fear every other post. Mixed in with that, I see news reporters, politicians, and a president I embarrassingly gave my vote, making excuses for wiping an entire population of kind, peaceful, and hopeful people off the face of the Earth with a familiar kiss goodnight from “Made in the U.S.A.”
We, as Americans and inevitable financiers of violence across the world, need to demand a ceasefire from our legislators. I make this post to ask my readers to educate themselves on the current genocide for one reason — more will die if not, and it will be on our hands. This genocide will be written in our history books for the role we played. And it is not a book I am okay with our future children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren reading, knowing we played a part in this tragedy. Let’s show some humanity.
I have a small platform, but it is a platform nonetheless. My blog was made to share my life and my feelings as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I promised it would be raw, and I promised I would share the ups and downs. My current feeling of devastation due to the ongoing genocide against Palestinians and its accompanying shame as an American is a down I did not expect to have during my service. Still, I also did not expect the international community to sit silently with their bowl of popcorn while another genocide takes place. I expected to have feelings of helplessness, embarrassment, and anger at some point throughout my service, but not of this magnitude and not from the actions of my own country. Let’s demand better. Lives depend on it.
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