My Impressions of America
I came to America because I was not satisfied in Palestine, and wanted to finish my studies.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“My Impressions of America” from When I was a Boy in Palestine by Mousa Kaleel, 1914.
I came to America because I was not satisfied in Palestine, and wanted to finish my studies. I have already shown that the schools in Palestine are not what they ought to be. I do not mean that the professors and teachers are not up to standard, for I am certain that they are. Some of them were graduates of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, some of American colleges, and they were well acquainted with their subjects too. The chief obstacle was the lack of text-books in the Arabic language. Consequently English books had to be used, and since our preparation in English had not been very great, we failed to get the results. It was an absurd state of affairs, and I followed the advice of the proverb, “Running away is two-thirds of valor” and left after having spent only one year at the college in Jerusalem.
I had my first train ride on the trip to Jaffa, whence I embarked for Egypt, France, England, and eventually America. I landed in Philadelphia when I was exactly sixteen years old. My purpose was to go to school, but not having the funds, I had to wait. After working one year, I entered a leading preparatory school in the State of Maine.
My studies there were much easier than play, although at one time I “carried" twenty-seven points. I enjoyed American teaching methods; the system is regular and suitable for the average boy. One thing that noticeably bothered me for a time, however, was working under women teachers; I was not used to it, and did not like it at first.
At school the game that interested me most was football. I played both at preparatory school and at college in this country, and I think it is the best athletic sport ever invented. It is a good man's game, where brain and brawn combine to produce the most thrilling feeling possible outside of actual warfare. I shall try to introduce it in Palestine.
I enjoyed track and field work, too. Running was no new thing to me. Many were the times at home that I had been chased, even for miles, by some “enemy." Everything that savored of competition was my hobby. Even debating at the Literary Society interested me, since Oak Grove, an ideal school, had a good debating club.
In the winter I indulged in coasting, and to leave nothing untried, I put on a pair of skates, and went to the river for skating. This was the hardest thing to master, almost harder than the ice, which, I had concrete reasons to find, was extremely hard. Forests and woods in their wild condition were new to me, and many are the miles I have walked, knee-deep in the snow, through the dense Maine woods. American life fascinates me.
Although it came a little bit harder than at school, college football was none the less enjoyable for me. I also liked to watch baseball and football. It seems to me that baseball is the American game: not only on the field, but in all their dealing, do the Americans play baseball. They have a highly developed system of opportunism. If a man is “there with the hit,'' he gets what he is after. But he must also be in time to score. This is American life.
It seems to me that this kind of life would be extremely desirable, if it did not tend to develop a few “grandstand" stars who play the leading roles in this country's arena. It is a great country. It is a miracle. But look at the brainy few who manipulate its millions, too few, almost, for the comfort of the other actors and builders in this nation. Its politics impressed me much the same as a ball game. For it is an advertising game: not what an official does, but what he makes the people think he does, gets the credit and the vote. This is not said in the spirit of criticism; there are enough muckrakers to tear a candidate's records to pieces, and to get at the truth. I am merely stating an impression. Good men, with good intentions and sound minds, founded this country on solid principles, and there is not, or need not be, any doubt but that the nation will ultimately approach the ideal.
Kaleel, Mousa. When I was a Boy in Palestine. Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Co. 1914.
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