Beyond the Years
July 04, 2024
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years.”
America is not a static entity. It is more of an evolving organism. Its DNA is encoded on our collective consciousness, but is not stable. It is subject to the whims and wished of each generation and that generation’s level of investment and understanding of America’s principles.
And what are those principles?
In many ways, they are the natural next steps of the Enlightenment mixed with elements of Jewish tradition, Christian Humanism, the Protestant Reformation, frontier individualism, European exceptionalism, and the tenacious thinking of an elite class of scholars, farmers, lawyers, and clergy who actually sat down around tables and through correspondence, developed a philosophical rationale for a new system of government that reflected their emerging values.
The things they wanted for themselves, many of them, in theory, believed should belong to all.
They envisioned a classless society, but could not come to agreement about that because the states were so heavily invested in another modern and evil institution of chattel slavery. Because of that dependence, outdated notions that male landowners made better “governors of the body politic,” and their own intellectual elitism, they did not have the faith, courage, or will to enfranchise all into the American promise.
But they laid the philosophical foundation for universal enfranchisement.
They created a foundation for those universal rights to evolve.
They built a constitution that Jefferson believed should be revisited from time to time. It was a patchwork of compromises with a surprising unity of thought. It was built with a tension between representative and democratic rule with democratic values at the core.
It was a system where the tug-of-war between localized and central powers was anticipated.
The American experiment seemed, at the time, to require a bloody revolution. Such a revolution expedited a transition that would eventually be replicated, sometimes without war, in other nations on most if not all continents.
Whether through war, resistance, or persistence, the urge for humanity to be free, self-determining, just and cooperative in a fair and just government of the people seems to stir a common theme in the hearts of citizens.
Yet, it must evolve, expand, and include more and more of those who have been excluded explicitly or implicitly.
To summarize the poetic words and sentiments of Langston Hughes, America has not been America for everyone, but it can be.
That requires every generation to exercise its citizenship and influence, to be informed, and to be philosophically reflective. People who may not be able to define political science must, nevertheless, be engaged in it.
To be an American in the fullest sense requires a plurality of the population who reads history in a larger context.
To be an American requires a larger worldview of the community of nations.
It demands, at its core, what President Carter placed at the center of his presidency, a passion for human rights for all.
I believe that the preservation and realization of the American dream requires constantly looking for ways to do things better and make the dream available for more and more around the world.
Frederick Douglas once explained why he could not afford the luxury of celebrating the Fourth of July. Yet, know one of his generation did more to work within the system to make its promise a reality.
I have love problem with sentimentality, but their comes a time when the work of democracy in a republican system demands more than warm fuzzy feelings. It requires engagement and commitment to make it work.
It requires vigilance to insure that the core values that were not fully realized are moved advanced and developed. It requires thinking and acting, holding the line and moving the line when necessary. It requires challenging authority and laws while upholding laws for all.
It always requires holding our leaders accountable as well as a willingness to step into leadership when the mantle falls upon us.
America is not a cultural identity. it is not a common language. It is not a common ethnic heritage. It is not just a place. It is not a stationary set of policies.
It is not even one religion, not even a civil religion, which is a poor excuse for real religion. Those of us who believe in God, see God as the source of the principles that provide the foundation of creation and revelation for our big idea, but that foundation is wide enough for all people to stand upon it.
And people of faith give God credit for that kind of plurality as well.
America is an emerging idea based upon a philosophy of human dignity, freedom, and a desire for common good.
We lose that, and we lose America.
We lose that, and no flags, symbols, or songs can hold us together.
Happy birthday, U.S.A., a grand experiment in opportunity, welcoming, growing, and working out lots of kinks that create dissonance between what we aspire to be and what we are.
The key is in the becoming.
We are not static. We have had some wars.
Our wars have not defined us, but have, at times, refined us.
We have had disagreements, inconsistencies, and contradictions, but we have an essentially righteous philosophy that has been articulated and is waiting to be fully applied.
The core structure is laid so that we can work these things out.
We are a community of communities.
We are not perfect, but we are capable of fixing our imperfections.
We are diverse.
We are changing.
We are free.
We thank our thinkers and our protectors, our builders and our critics today. We join hands and sing of our common love. Let us be one people.
“America, America,
God mend thine every flaw.
Confirm thy soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law.”
https://www.purpleheart.org/static/forms/AmericaTheBeautiful.pdf
Hear the songs at This Location.
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