As everyone knows, the United States of America is not a perfect nation, nor is its history pure and spotless. Many today loudly and continually remind the world of that and condemn its very existence. They forget – or worse, were never taught – that the USA is more of an aspirational ideal than a completed work.
Critics condemn our failure to wholly live up to the lofty ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, seemingly unaware or unwilling to recognize the many good things that have come from the pursuit of those ideals. They focus only on the evils and injustices as if they outweigh and cancel the unprecedented freedom and prosperity this nation has brought to so many for over two centuries.
Perhaps critics of the U.S.A. would benefit from considering their own individual condition as regards aspiration and attainment.
Every decent human being is a mixture of good and bad. Most of us aspire to embody certain virtues and characteristics yet struggle daily with our own weaknesses, inconsistency, hypocrisy, and other shortcomings. Do these undesirable aspects of our nature and behavior negate the more noble, virtuous, and respectable desires that reside within and find occasional expression in real life?
Does our repeated failure to live up to our own ideals mean that we are essentially evil and destined for infamy? Or may we, despite our personal weaknesses and failures, continue to strive for goodness and virtue and honor? I believe that we can and we should.
I also believe that our great nation, though imperfect and fallible, does yet and must continue to aspire to fulfill the ideals which inspired and animated its inception and its history to this very day. We – all Americans – must share this belief and work together to bring it to fruition.
It’s OK to recognize our failures and work to rectify them, as we have done many times in the past. But let us not burden ourselves with permanent shame and the dismantling of the frame and structure of our republic. Let’s hold fast the vision of our founding fathers and work together to achieve the audacious goal to which they earnestly aspired.
We can and should take pride in our nation, not because we are better than other nations, but because we continually strive to be the best possible version of ourselves.