American Greatness

The Two Foundation Blocks & the Opportunity

If the American experiment is to continue the current generations of Americans will need to draw upon and model American Greatness. American Greatness rests on two historical foundation blocks and we are now challenged to carry it forward by taking on the big tough issues we face.

That means drawing upon and honoring the American Greatness with which we have been blessed and entrusted – and drawing upon courage and perseverance to model the American Greatness called for now. We must avoid the two natural pitfalls of being stuck in the past or being afraid of the future. We must move forward, not back.

Why Does “American Greatness” Matter?

It matters because the picture we hold of American Greatness affects how we think about America, how we feel about America, and how we act. What is the picture or vision we hold

of American Greatness? How do we act to model and carry it forward to honor our past and continue striving to fully realize the original American vision for all Americans?

Our Challenge

To take pride in the first two foundation blocks and commit to modeling American Greatness now as we take on the tough issues we face – the ones that call for and offer an opportunity to model American Greatness. We, as the current American generations, are called to build on strength and draw on our courage and perseverance to further the American experiment.

“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand”

President Harry S. Truman

Foundation Block #1 – The Courage to Birth a New Kind of Nation

The founding of America was a new model of governance for the world, including the personal qualities required to establish such a model. The founding of America wasn’t perfect, but it was a game-changer for the world. Americans had to make the commitment and sacrifices to fight a war against the strongest military in the world to bring the new nation into being. And they had to find the courage to go into an unknown future with no guarantees of success.

The Core Elements. America’s greatness was based on a set of core values, a balance of individual liberty and public responsibility, a tri-partite governmental structure, critical processes like free elections, a system based on laws, and a set of key institutions. That combination was designed to protect individual liberty and the common well-being as well as prevent the usurpation of power by an individual or group – or the violation of the rule of law by rulers for their own benefit.

Shared Personal Qualities. The founding of America was also a model of the courage, commitment, and perseverance required to break free of the dominant model of autocratic hereditary rule and found something completely new. It was a model for the world of the qualities required to come together and literally put a life on the line and endure tremendous hardships, to establish a way of living that had no comforting history or future certainty on which to rely.

It Wasn’t Perfect. For example, racism and slavery were built into our founding documents, structures, and cultural norms. It was part of our founding DNA. We are obviously still struggling with that – still struggling to realize the American dream for all Americans. It took constitutional amendments to include women and begin to include people of color. And we are not finished.

Foundation Block #2 – Our Historical Trajectory

The second foundation block is the fact that, although it has had a mixed history of progress and backsliding, America has been working at realizing the founding principles and values ever since its beginning. It has been a relentless challenge with the right trajectory, a disappointing pace, and lots of small and large ups and downs – progress and back-sliding, but no quitting.

The persistence and resilience to “hold the course.” The model provided to others from our founding to the present has been to persevere and keep grinding to fully realize the founding dream – having the courage and will to keep facing our gaps and commit to “holding the course” in order to pursue the original vision.

“Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the

tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”

Adlai Stevenson

America’s greatness does not come from never having done anything wrong. It comes from continuing to work at achieving the founding vision, being secure enough to acknowledge that we aren’t there yet, and that we have made mistakes on the path. Our history is full of indefensible discrimination, injustice, and violence. We have poverty, crime, and inequality. The expansion of America after its founding was built on slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans.

Our strength has been in fighting to protect the American experiment from attacks and continuing to fight to “right the wrongs”, not deny or defend them. The critical point is that we have shown the commitment and courage to acknowledge and confront them. America is great because we are secure enough to say:

“Yes, we can do better – we will do better – we will always seek to do better.”

Our Challenge Now

“Answering the Call” to Take on the Big Tough Challenges

The third block – the one we are responsible for – is our willingness to continue on the path to realize the original vision and expand it to include all Americans. It focuses on our willingness and ability to take on the big tough issues we face, such as of climate change, racism, AI, the health of rural America, countering the dictatorships that would like to take America down, etc.

We will either honor our founding and the generations that have persevered to model American greatness – by taking on the big challenges that call for greatness. Or we will fall prey to the ever-present fear, uncertainty and doubt and retreat from them. American greatness is not conferred. It is constantly earned.

America has always been future oriented – not afraid of or stuck in the past and not afraid of the future. If we are too succeed in modeling American Greatness we must now avoid two pitfalls. One is being stuck in the glories of the past or defending our short-comings, which would leave us with little power to create the future. The other is fearing the future given the scope of the challenges and the lack of any guarantees of success, which can cause us to hide and be paralyzed by fear or insecurity.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.

We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for,

protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

Ronald Reagan

The challenge is to draw upon and model American Greatness to take on the big complex challenges we face. There is a daunting aray of big tough challenges to choose from, for example”

Climate change
The revitalization of rural America
Equitable income distribution and wealth
Socio/political polarization
Countering racism
Immigration (global and national)
Protecting biodiversity
Technology, particularly AI
Dealing with authoritarian regimes interested in ending the American experiment
Ensuring the basics – food security, housing, equitable cost-effective healthcare, etc.

At its best America has always been future oriented – not defensive or stuck in the past and not afraid of the future. It’s always about moving forward, not backward – learning from the past, drawing on our best and “learning the way” as we push forward.

The Key – Drawing on our courage and acting from our “larger selves.” Our choice about acting from our larger or smaller selves is the key to our ability to take on the challenges we face and model American Greatness. Fear will always be present in dealing with life’s big tough challenges, but we must find the courage to transcend that fear and call upon our best and find new bests in the process – individually and together.

American Greatness must be earned by every generation. Every generation must pick up the challenge to take on the critical challenges it faces. Every generation must honor the past, acknowledge and learn from the mistakes, and tap into the courage, perseverance, and resilience at the heart of American Greatness – in order to continue on the path to fully realizing our founding vision.

One Example of an Opportunity to Answer the Call:

Countering Racism to Model American Greatness Now

One of the “issues of the age” that we can take on to model American Greatness is countering racism. It is one of the toughest and most complex challenges we face and taking it on will not only require and call forth American Greatness – it will model it for everyone. Racism has been a central factor of American life, from our founding to the present time, and it will require courage, perseverance, and resilience over an extended period of time to finally overcome it.

It’s Been a Long journey

Our Founding – We did not have a good start. Racism is in direct opposition to the founding values of America, and it was a fundamental problem at our founding as it excluded Black people from full citizenship. America accepted slavery at its founding in order to maintain the unity of the colonies as a nation.

Our History – It’s been a long journey with a lot of ups and downs – slavery almost from the beginning; a civil war to end it; Jim Crow to diminish and control Black people; built in nationwide systems of discrimination and exclusion; atrocities like the Tulsa Massacre; civil rights legislation in the 1960s; and stubborn resistance to change all the way. There has been sporadic progress on both individual and systemic levels with lots of backsliding, but a trajectory in the right direction.

Currently – There has been progress since the civil rights legislation in the 1960s, but well short of what was expected and hoped for. So the question now is, “What are we going to do about countering the racism that still exists? How are we going to take on challenges like the racial wealth gap or inequities in education, healthcare, and the criminal justice system?

Are we going to take on the challenges of personal, group, organizational and community change? Or are we going to stay on the sidelines? What are we going to model, and will it be worthy of our founding and the sacrifices of previous generations?

“There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

– Amanda Gorman

The “Call to Action”

Going Forth to Meet the Challenge

We either say “yes” to the challenge” and act – or we say “no” and stand on the sidelines. There is no middle ground. We can act in large or small ways, but we must act. Starting small is fine. Not acting is not fine.

The Uncommon Qualities Required to Meet the Challenge

To go forth together to successfully take on the big tough challenges we face requires a set of qualities that are not common – qualities that underlie the maintenance of American Greatness. These uncommon qualities support our actions whether they are large or small, whether they are focused on individual behaviors, group behaviors, or the strengthening of our institutions and processes.

We are talking about “greatness”, not “being ordinary.” “Being ordinary” is the natural default. “Great” requires intent and effort by a critical mass of Americans. Not everyone must act to support American Greatness, but a critical mass of Americans must.

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high, and

we miss it, but that it is too low, and we reach it.”

Michelangelo

As individuals we are challenged to:

Understand and be inspired by our founding and our history of perseverance – the two foundation blocks
Find the courage to commit to and model American Greatness, in large or small ways, through action
Act from our larger selves vs. our smaller selves – drawing on our values, courage, perseverance, our willingness to risk/trust, and our resilience
Focus on the trajectory of our historical pursuit of American Greatness while being motivated by the gaps in fully achieving the vision
Focus on the big tough issues we face (climate change, the health of rural America, racism, poverty, etc.) vs. complaining, tearing down our democratic institutions and processes, or hiding by focusing on smaller challenges that don’t require greatness
Find the common ground on which to stand and use our differences as a source of creativity
Face any fear of the future and trust that we can go forth and take on the big issues and somehow find the right path – as well as discover the capabilities required – even if they aren’t evident in the beginning of the journey

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get

stronger and more resilient.”

Steve Maraboli

These are the qualities and characteristics that have sustained American Greatness, but they are not common. They are, however, what protects America as a true democracy and what we can model for the world. We must stay focused on them and be disciplined in our attitude and behavior if we are to carry American Greatness forward.

“These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not

in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station,

that great character is formed… Great necessities

call out great virtue.”

Abigail Adams letter to John Quincy Adams

Going forth to meet the challenge

The American Experiment Won’t Survive Being Ordinary

It is unlikely that our democracy can be taken from us by authoritarian regimes, given America’s strength and resilience. We can, however, let it slip away by turning away from the challenge to take on the big tough issues and abdicating to internal authoritarian forces and those who fail to find the courage to face our challenges.

It’s our turn to draw upon American Greatness and model it – acting to carry it forward and persevering against the odds.

“America will never be destroyed from the outside.

If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be

because we destroyed ourselves.”

Abraham Lincoln