"America the better. Yes, we are better than most. This great American Experiment is still called American Exceptionalism for a very good reason."
Glenn Beck often talks about America being good. The American people being good. Great? No, but very good. Greatness however, is within our grasp. We can be a great people. We can be a great nation. But first we need to get better. That is why I think we should be called America the better.
What do mean by that? With our multitude of problems, we are still a better country to live in than most. We don't have waves of people clamoring to get out of this country to go elsewhere - but we sure see waves of people clamoring to get in.
Back to Beck's comment - no matter how good we are, we need to be better, much better. It is good to have family disagreements. Maybe even heated discussions at times. But our new found tribalism has resulted in visceral hatred by some citizens against fellow citizens. It has led to some of the most vile and un-Godly things said about people who believe differently than others.
Truly, our political discourse has gone from respectful disagreement, to acting like the Hatfield's and the McCoy's. Yes, I mean that bad. At one time we only had the abortion issue in which there was no common ground. Now we have added guns. To solve this recent epidemic of school shootings, we have found it impossible to look for common sense solutions. Rather, it is just another feather in the cap of issues we cannot agree on. Instead of fixing this horrible problem, punishing the innocent is the path many are now on.
America, we need to get better, and fast. We need to look back in history and learn from our Founders. The last sentence in the Declaration of Independence states, "we pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." We also need to look back at the "Greatest Generation" on what made them great. My opinion? They were much more concerned with the "we" instead of the "me".
America the better. Yes, we are better than most. This great American Experiment is still called American Exceptionalism for a very good reason. We have been handed an amazing country by those who lived here before us. It is an amazing republic, with amazing freedoms. Our biggest threat? Ourselves. As Ben Franklin wisely said so many years ago, "We have a republic - if we can keep it."
Certainly, our most immediate threat is the "great divider".
ReplyDeleteIt was the apt end of a week that left the president, Lear-like, all but abandoned in a raging storm. Hope Hicks, an aide so close that she has been described as a surrogate daughter, became the fourth communications director to leave his administration. Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, was stripped of high-level security clearance amid revelations about potential conflicts of interest. The king himself fulminated on topics from gun control to trade tariffs, leaving courtiers scrambling to offer reassurances about his state of mind.
ReplyDeleteThere has been disarray in the White House before but this time, observers said, the checks and balances that have provided a modicum of restraint appear to be crumbling, leaving 45 isolated, angry and ready to lash out. It is, they fear, not inconceivable that the world’s most powerful country is now being guided by instinct, by impulse, by whim and by mood swing.
Administration officials and outsiders with windows into decision-making describe a growing sense of despair within 45’s ranks, driven by the mounting realization that the president’s brand of politics guided by intuition and improvisation is incompatible with a competently functioning executive branch.
ReplyDeleteMost alarming, by these lights, is mounting evidence that 45 lacks an attribute possessed by most previous presidents and certainly by all the most successful ones: a capacity for self-critique and self-correction.