Have We? Formed A More Perfect Union?
At some point we must simply ask ourselves as citizens — are we living up to the promises and declarations set forth in our founding? This is not a question of party preference or politics, but one of careful, courageous and mature deliberation. Every worthy plan set in motion deserves, and dare I say demands, review and objective measure of its results against its intention, and these United States of America put forth some bold and audacious goals upon its founding; goals worthy of measure by objective analysis and in the context of its application through the ages.
It was within the concepts of our Declaration of Independence that we boldly stated without compromise or doubt that certain truths are held to be self-evident, among them, “that ALL men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This is not a question of election or politics; it’s not defined by race, gender or faith, or who, by an electoral win of a narrow margin somehow gets to claim mandate that their “side” speaks for the whole. Instead, it’s a bold assertion by flawed men who, despite their ownership of slaves, knew enough to not embody slavery in the founding documents of a new and fragile nation. By an uncommon awareness that “getting it right” is impossible and whom a mere two years later, nearly to the day, had to pass the Bill of Rights to amend their Constitution to clarify and set up stopgaps and safety measures to protect against their own shortsightedness and errors. They weren’t perfect. And they knew it.
It is not the responsibility of future generations to look back and rationalize and justify and defend manners in which the Founders may be right. Instead, it is our responsibility to courageously and simply ask; have we done better? Have we the people built upon their legacy, have we made it better? Have we indeed “formed a more perfect union than even they could have imagined?” Are “all men treated equally;” as they have been created. Have we evolved past “men”meaning the male of the species or a requirement for land ownership to be counted? Is everyone afforded the “unalienable right to Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness?…” If the answer to any of these is no, then we have not fulfilled the goals. We’re not yet done because we are not yet doing it correctly. As MLK said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” We thrive together or we fail together.
We are a nation of plurality and diversity among our citizenry; built upon the bones of ancestors, free and enslaved, buried in land that didn’t belong to us. At the time of our declaration even our venerable Founders could not fully comprehend the magnitude of what they were building. Living in an age of owning people and treating women as inferior and unworthy of the vote, they had limited vision of what would come, of how truly grand the American experiment could become. But they knew enough open the Constitution in a font larger than life with three — powerful — words: WE THE PEOPLE. Not “we the Senators.” Not “we the Congress.” Not “We the President.” We The People… In order to form a more perfect Union…
Have we?
In some ways, perhaps. Women vote. Slaves are free. Yes. We could list many more accomplishments. But surely, if we were to courageously look at ourselves we would own the adolescent behavior that has become our national dialogue. Our future doesn’t live in the past. Our past is wise counsel not all knowing. If there is ever a hope of breaking down sides, of becoming the highest potential of a nation that even the founding fathers couldn’t have fathomed, we must be willing to ask what’s working, and hold on to it with all we have. But we must also be courageous enough to face what truly isn’t working and stop it so we can open up opportunities to start things that would otherwise be halted just because “it’s not how it’s always been done.”
We’re failing as a nation because we aren’t seeking to problem solve, we instead get caught in blaming and self-righteous superiority of opposing sides, as if the way one sees “it” is the only way “it” can be seen. It’s not. We aren’t called to hate, we are called to love. We aren’t called to measure our success against our neighbors but to ask how we can help one another. It takes a village; not just to raise a child, but to raise a nation. And we are stuck, like the 14 year old Mark Twain who shared: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. When I got to be 21, I was astonished how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
As a nation, we are 14 year old boys looking at our opponents as “ignorant old men we can’t stand to have around.” In Twain’s anecdote, his father was as wise in 1849 as he was in 1856. It was Mark who had grown. When do we as a nation experience the same growth, the same maturity, the same recognition that those we see as ignorant and annoying are in fact full of their own wisdom from which we can learn; and in doing so, fulfill the Founding Father’s vision of a more perfect union for ALL the people — equally — as we come to realize our own endowments of Life, Liberty and pursuits of Happiness?
