Seriously that is a huge thing to describe. What is America now? What should America be? What will America become?
America, meaning the United States is the most powerful nation in the world. A nation with a rich history of military distinction and bold endeavorsthat has been a beacon of freedomforindividual rights and freedom from immoral persecution.
America, is truly, the last great empire, and perhaps world power that extends all over the earth, and America's leader is also the leader of the Free World, since the Cold War.
America, is the nation in the world, with the longest lasting government, second to England, since 1789, I believe is the date. Even European nations, have experianced power shifts since WWII, the Cold War, etc, and their governments are much newer, although their races, culture, are older than ours.
I have my own thoughts on this subject, but I'd like to offer you the perspective of a man who is among the wisest I know. The following was written by Judge Jamie Cotton, Jr. Judge Cotton is one of the wisest men I know, and also one of the most forward-thinking. The programs he has established during his tenure on the bench have received nationwide attention and have done great things for our community. This is his view of America. I normally don't cut & paste, but it's a good explanation of what America is.
Quote:
"You have no idea of the place you"ve got here."
These were the words spoken to me more than three decades ago by my college friend from South Vietnam, Quan Tran. He was talking about America.
"Quan Tran" was a shorter version of his longer Vietnamese name, which he kindly provided to us as a token of friendship, and to make it easier on us country boys from East Tennessee, who, truth be known, hadn"t mastered the English language all that well ourselves.
Quan and I were teammates, making the weary journey back in a school van, having just participated in a collegiate table tennis tournament held at North Carolina State University. The long hours on the road, before, had been spent talking about our lives " two men, different languages, different skin colors, different cultures, from different corners of the world " brought together in conversation by our common yearning for home.
He told me about his family back in Saigon - father, mother, brothers, sisters, grandparents. He told me what life was like there. He talked about his fears, that he was worried sick and frightened for the safety of his family, because his father was a political leader and openly supported America. How he loved his family. How he missed them " how his heart ached to see them, again. Then, I told him all about my family, my childhood in the Appalachian mountains, what life was like there " what a good life, it was. And that"s when he said those words to me . . .
Somehow, his words that day were a thunderstroke to my consciousness of America. It was an awakening, a turning point, forever, in coming to know and deeply understand how blessed " how truly blessed I was - to live in America . . . to be an American.
America, I know, is not a perfect place, no utopia. Far from it. America"s short but rich history has been marked with triumph and tears, courage and cruelty, unity and unrest. But still, America is a place strikingly different from any other on earth. It is a place where people from all over the world, like Quan Tran, can come to pursue their hopes and dreams.
When the Founders gathered in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to create and shape a place called America, their thoughts, their blueprint of America, was not about a physical place of vast natural resources, boundless land and space, great rivers, mountains and oceans.
Instead, they envisioned America as a place that transcended and went beyond the physical and the material " an incorporeal place, where life was free and good. A place where people, everywhere, who believed in liberty, were welcome. A place of hope and opportunity.
After all, what other country throws out the welcome mat like America? You can move to Russia, and live there all of your life " but you will never come to be a Russian. You can move to Iran, and live there " but you will never come to be an Iranian. You can move to North Korea, and live there " and you will never come to be a North Korean. Yet any person, anywhere, can move to America " and come to be an American. That is the magic and wonder of this place we call America.
Think about it for a moment. If today, we opened up every border, every checkpoint, every harbor in America, wide open " the whole planet would roll in here like water over Niagara Falls. Each year, we take in millions of people from other countries, from all over the world. Many legally, many not. Most with good intentions, some not. We even allow people who have entered our country illegally to protest and scream out against America, and do so in public places, without fear of arrest or reprisal. Show me another country that allows that.
At the same time people are pouring in here from everywhere, many of those same countries from where they come are screaming and railing what a mean and awful place America is. They say America is imperialistic, materialistic, bully-istic and torture-istic. So, I gotta ask . . . if America is such a terrible place, like they say we are " just why do they risk everything, life and limb, to come over here?
Is it so they can be stripped of their liberty by an imperialistic king? Robbed of their material belongings by corrupted governmental officials? Bullied into involuntary servitude by a ruling militia? Tortured into practicing a government-sponsored religion by a religious dictator? Of course not.
They come to America to speak, assemble and worship, freely. They come for freedom, food, jobs, to own a piece of ground or their own home, and to live in peace, without being afraid of their own government " all the wonderful things America offers.
Yet, when you really get down to it, it is hope and opportunity that has nourished the souls of people all over the world, that pulls and draws them to America. Yes, America is the land of bread and life. But even more, America is the flame that burns, brightest, in the lamp of hope.
On May 1, 1975, the day after Saigon fell, I watched the evening news, and becoming very worried, I took off across campus to check on my old friend. I stopped in at the college dormitory where he had always lived. Busy with my last year at the university, I had not seen Quan Tran in several months.
I learned from his former dorm director that he had dropped out of college, and moved away " to where, no one knew. He told me that Quan had spent several desperate months, struggling against immigration, unfavorable political winds and too-little time, trying to get his family out of Saigon, before it"s inevitable fall to the Communists. Quan Tran knew, all too well, that once the South Vietnamese government collapsed, the political leaders and their families would be the first to be eliminated.
As I turned to leave, I had to ask the question that still burned in my head, "What about his family?" A foreboding silence followed.
"They never made it out", the man shouted to me, as I walked away.
We have no idea of the place we"ve got here.
__________________
We must be the change we wish to see in the world -- Ghandi
http://www.rightminded.net
What is America?
