The founding of America and the creation of a charter by which to ensure the rights of humans to live free and to establish domestic tranquility through laws prescribed by justice, changed the world. A country was defined by a constitution that protected every individual from religious persecution, from authoritarian tyranny, and from taxation without representation. The world had not seen the likes of such independence and resolve to protect freedom.
The evil of slavery contradicted this purpose but the brilliant system of government outlined in that constitution continually battled demons of tradition and forged paths to our better angels. The work is not complete but the journey continues to inspire people around the globe. Why else would thousands of hopeful immigrants continue to seek our borders?
The image, however, of the “Shining City on the Hill” has begun to fade. Not to those seeking asylum from terror or better opportunities in America to provide, but from a movement within our borders. An ideology of compliance sprung from an ideology of conservatism that has grown with fury to demonize those immigrants and to corrode our own principles of freedom.
They’ve done so by believing limits on the reach of self evident truths are the more patriotic manifestation of America’s promise. It is unrelenting and the never ending chorus of attacks against the expansion of tolerance, acceptance, differences, and beliefs creates a new normal where the bar of decency is lowered with each.
This movement has made Donald Trump their leader and they answer faithfully to his dog whistles to racists, sexists and misguided nationalists. Donald Trump has given name calling, insults and lies a seat at the negotiating table. By doing so the discourse at our own kitchen tables has degenerated into ad hominem attack.
Lack of information has become enough information to form opinions. Opinions that a segment of that movement would gladly bear arms to defend.
Overseas the stature of America has diminished. My own travels with my wife are only anecdotal evidence but being face to face with people of other nations is also more convincing than polling data which always seems skewed. When my wife and I were in Scotland last year, for example, hardly a day went by in a pub where someone didn’t ask:”What’s going on in America?”
They weren’t asking about gay marriage or transgender rights or alleged invasions at our southern border, they were asking how could America betray its own legacy of justice by denying diversity, equity and inclusion. And how could we have ever elected “someone as unequivocally horrible as Donald Trump?” (a real quote)
The movement AGAINST the evolved understanding of humanity is now defining us. The Olympics are the latest embarrassment. Not the athletes, the ceremonies or the games themselves, but Americans in an uproar over a pageant that performers thought was a testament to the love of diversity.
America is not alone when it comes to antiquated and prejudicial views, but another comment from abroad was: “America should be the country that sets the high water mark for the expansion of liberty and inclusion.”
The same American movement jumped on a female Algerian boxer because she looked like a man in the their eyes and cried foul when she struck another woman in the ring. Their ignorance dug in and cited a denounced assessment of her testosterone that suggested her femininity was suspect. How insulting and hurtful they have been to a woman who only came to compete. And her accusers have no shame.
No shame. In fact they double down on every incorrect judgement of intention or eligibility simply to further an agenda to destroy anything and anyone outside of their narrowing window of acceptance.
Literally the opposite of the colonists who defied a king and a state religion to create a new nation with liberty and justice for all.
We all bear the Olympic-sized shame of the MAGA revolution. It is time now to tack a better course toward that Shining City on the Hill.
