Faith in America's Promise

In America, we have had faith that our country's systems work. The systems of self-rule, liberty and justice along with a government of the people, by the people and for the people are the primary values we depend upon to keep us together and inspire the rest of the world. It seems as though our current president's followers have lost faith in the democratic process and no longer care about the rule of law. They can ignore all of this president’s behavior as long as he gives them Supreme Court justices and panders to their racial sentiments. The few have decided that they can elevate their leader to the status of dictator and that will be ok as long as they get their way.

For some reason nobody else matters besides them. It is a sad day when resentment and anger replace democracy and justice. When personal gain is more important than cooperative self interest. Our country's infrastructure is outdated and unreliable. While other countries invest in themselves we no longer seem to have the will to keep our nation functional. Looking at America today is like driving through the poorest of neighborhoods and seeing their unhappiness in the way they maintain their homes, their streets and their communities.

What has happened to our pride in ourselves? Why do we no longer care about our country's infrastructure nor how our neighbor feels? I think the answer is the lost faith in the promise of America. We do not understand that all progress has setbacks, but the general trend of history is technological and human progress. Our lives are much better than they were 100 years ago. Go back as far as you wish and we live much better than ever and better than most people in the world today.
America does not have a perfect past, nobody does. We do not treat everybody with equity and our past is littered with violence against others who were in the way of America's image of itself. Part of evolution is a change in the way cultures view outsiders. America is working its way through these problems. Not smoothly, not to everyone's satisfaction nor quickly enough in today's world of instant communications. Our problems are transparent and have become the discussion of everyday life. We are constantly confronted with the problems caused by racism, exclusion, violence, greed and resentment. Only by confronting who we are can we reduce the anxiety and stress brought by these issues.

America's struggles is the tension that has  determined what type of culture we live in and has driven us to where we are today. To a certain degree, the states take some of the pressure of culture change. Each state does not change at the same pace as our national culture and allows citizens who are reluctant to change to have time to accept and adopt the changes . The culture of America is making a fundamental change to one that accepts all people as equal citizens and views cooperation as a better value than competition.

America is even bigger than the culture wars that are being waged there. It is a large diverse group of human beings who have mostly agreed on the basic values of self-rule, liberty and justice. This is what draws people to this country, the promise of these values. This promise has been spread across the globe and in this time of technological communications people world wide understand the change America is bringing about. That is a government of the people, by the people and for the people with liberty and justice for all. We must maintain our faith in the promises we have made to ourselves and the world.