Watching America From A Distance: A Letter From Norway

Katherine Lee Bates wrote these words in 1893 as part of "America the Beautiful," a poem that was never meant to simply celebrate America as it was. It was an aspiration, a plea to the nation to use its wealth and power for the common good. More than a century later, from Norway, I find myself returning to Bates's words, not as a celebration but as a lament.

America From a Distance

From Annika Parsons, a Minnesota-born american:
The United States is not what I recognize now, but Minnesota is. 

My community that still bears the scars of distrust and hurt from George Floyd’s brutal death is now under siege by untrained, violent “officers” literally kidnapping people from their homes. This community is where I lived and loved my entire life before moving to Norway. 

Every morning, I wake up in fear for a message that one of my family members has been hurt or killed in a protest, or that one of my neighbors has been taken to God knows where. The guilt that I feel living in Norway while the city and people I love are under attack is confusing. 

On one hand, I’ve fought for my place here but another part of me feels like I’ve left everyone to suffer alone there. The right to protest is ingrained in the first amendment of the constitution but yet, Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were gunned down for merely exercising that right. 

I sit here and watch the videos from my neighborhood of people being pepper-sprayed and beaten and wonder how can something like this be allowed to happen? Who else will die? 

My one comfort is Minneapolis itself. As seen on news channels around the world, Minnesotans are resilient. They will show up day after day in our streets in -25 degree weather to fight for the expulsion of ICE from the city. 

They will patrol neighborhoods, blowing their whistles at the sight of ICE to warn immigrant families. They will drop off food and necessities at the homes of the vulnerable who are locked inside for fear of being imprisoned simply for the crime of being a certain ethnicity. 

Minnesota and Minneapolis score year after year on rankings such as, “Happiest Cities in the Country” and, “Best Places for Families” and it’s something you don’t quite understand unless you’ve lived there for many years. 

The community worth fighting for, the history we refuse to forget and the sense of belonging we all share is held within all of us and will continue long after the Trump regime is defeated. 

A System That Has Failed Americans

Annika's words about Minnesota resonate deeply with me, but my relationship with Arkansas is different. I come from one of the poorest and least educated states in the nation. I grew up watching addiction, domestic violence, food insecurity, and homelessness affect families close to mine. I love Arkansas, it's my home, but I also understood early what it couldn't give me.

Arkansans (or Arkansawyers if you are my grandmother) have a dark joke: if it weren't for Mississippi, we'd be ranked worst in America by every measure. Arkansas consistently ranks 49th out of 50 in nearly all rankings such as average salary, adult illiteracy, teen birth rate, food insecurity, and infant mortality (just to name a few). 

But these statistics don't reflect a failure of intelligence or character. It shows a systemic failure of chronic underinvestment and public support in public education, libraries, and critical thinking infrastructure. 

I carry a different kind of guilt than Annika. I got out. There are no armed police kidnapping and murdering civilians in Norway, no protests I'm missing, no immediate crises. My guilt is quieter but persistent: the knowledge that I had the opportunity to leave while so many people I love remain trapped in a system designed to fail them.

I see people from all over the state organizing with immense bravery, showing up to protest even when their numbers are small. I see grassroots community efforts: volunteers organizing food drives for hungry children, pooling resources to keep libraries stocked with books, small businesses donating their hard-earned money to mutual aid funds to support local communities affected by ICE raids. All of these acts empower communities, built one act of solidarity at a time.

Trump's rhetoric works in rural America because it's simple and emotionally resonant for people who feel abandoned by institutions. The people suffering most are often the ones who voted for it, trapped in cycles of disinformation and economic desperation. But I'm confident that Arkansans who want change will show up to vote and resist. 

Arkansas the Beautiful 

Arkansas embodies “America the Beautiful”. The Ozark mountains and the Buffalo National River holds natural majesty that inspire greatness. Arkansas shows extraordinary potential and resilient people held back by a system that takes rather than invests.

From Norway, I see what America could be. I see a country that invests in its people, that treats healthcare and education as rights rather than privileges, that builds systems to support its citizens rather than corporate profit. These systems ensure that no matter what conditions you are born into, you are not being held back. These aren't radical ideas, they're working realities in much of the developed world.

Bates asked America to refine its gold, to turn success into nobility. Instead, the country abandoned communities like ours. Arkansas and Minnesota are made great by their people. With Minnesotans standing in -25 degree weather to protect their neighbors and Arkansans organizing against impossible odds. 

I don't know if I'll ever move back to the United States, but I know I will continue to care, to advocate, and to believe that these communities might one day get the investment they deserve. Until then, I'll watch from Norway, mourning what's been lost and holding onto what might still be possible.