The Constitution of the United States of America was ratified in 1788, and the first president was elected in 1789. The contents of the Constitution were debated for the most part by Christian men of reason, and were finally written and ratified during a time when there was no political party. Reason and compromise prevailed, and a great nation was born.
If the great political, religious, and racial divides that exist today in America have any significance, it probably rests in those reasons why we exist and feel that we still deserve to exist as a nation. It rests in the reasons why we have our form of government, our political and economic systems--and until recently, our kind of politics--and not the other alternatives. It rests in the reasons we have to trust or distrust our economic and political systems, which must be anchored in integrity but are potentially the roots of considerable evil. Who we are--and even what we hope to become--rest on whether those reasons are changing, and on whether Americans both want and expect economic and political integrity to be lasting attributes of this nation.
In his historic Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln said, "our forefathers established on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Although there were plenty of red and black men in America--and of other colors throughout the world--when the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written, the majority of the Founders chose to reference ALL men, meaning not just all WHITE men. "ALL men are created equal" included colored people.
In the midst of the "Great Civil War," Lincoln was reminding us that we were "testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated (could) long endure." He was not questioning the merits of equality; he was questioning white America's ability to extend the "blessings of liberty" to people of color: Did a substantial majority of white Christian Americans believe it, and were the others at least willing to act like they did because it was the right thing to do?
There was, even then, a strong case to be made for all men not being created equal. Even people of the same color were not equivalent: They had different heights, talents, intelligence, areas and levels of creativity, degrees of attractiveness, etc. But "equal" did not mean equivalent or identical. Equal meant of equal worth, deserving of equal respect as human beings, deserving to be treated as one would like to be treated.
Those who suggest that men were not all created equal imply by such suggestions that some people--usually themselves--are superior to others. But such superiority usually means that some people had advantages not available to those whom they consider inferior. Within every race and within every endeavor, everything else being equal, there are millions of individuals who can outperform millions of members of any races. In other words: not every member of any race of people is superior to every member of any other race in any attribute.
The exercise and levels of genius within a culture depends on the physical, social and intellectual environments where geniuses reside. It depends on the perceived physical, social and intellectual needs of that society, and on the society's demands for and commitments to intellectual resourcefulness. Creativity (and at what level it is allowed to exist) often depends on whether prevailing attitudes will allow ingenuity to be expressed.
Whereas, scientific, economic, and medical genius easily find avenues for expression, social, educational and moral genius, which address how we relate to each other, because of a lack of financial reward, have a much harder time being developed, even when there are examples of success, and when there are such obvious needs for them.
So we are back to the original question: Who are we as Americans, and what do we seek to become? Just what did the Founders envision when they "established on this continent a new nation"? What did they mean by "all men (being) created equal and endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"? And does our survival, as a nation founded on those principles, depend on our either believing them or acting as if we do.
There are those who say it was no coincidence that men of the intelligence, wisdom and integrity of the Founders lived at the same time, in the same place, to address a situation that required their presence. They say it was divine providence. And although Lincoln expressed some concern whether a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal' could "long endure," he closes his address by optimistically saying that the nation would have a "new birth of freedom," and that government of the people, by the people and for the people (would) not perish from the earth. Was Lincoln being prophetic or was it just an expression of hope?
One hundred years later, during the sixties, the nation experienced what many considered that new birth. And although it may only have put finishing touches on the first one, It felt good to be an American. Since then, however, who we are and what we seek to become as Americans have become increasingly relevant questions.
Paraphrasing Jesus, Lincoln said that a nation divided against itself cannot stand. Because of slavery, the nation was divided North against South. Later, the South would be separated, White from Black. And, now, there are religious divides in a country once aspirating to be "one nation under God."
If the Founders were men chosen by The Creator to establish a model nation for the world, who chose these flounderers who seem committed to preventing it from happening?
Ronald
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