America, home of . . .

Is America showing its age? It is hard to imagine that 244 years old is the edge of early adolescence when compared to other Nations of the world. You can hear England quip, “I’ve got shoes older than you.” Distant relatives in the EU Nation states collectively shake their head and giggle in admiration and disappointment at the state of our Union in these United States of America. Those “older” Nations, like a parent might note to adult children with their first child, “Having a little trouble are you?”

King George’s character in Hamilton sings,
“Da da da da da
Da da da da daye da
Da da da da daye da
You’re on your own…”

I reflected on America this July 4th weekend. The oddity, freedom, chaos, and uncertainty of a coronavirus holiday. I’m preparing for many more like it. Several sources informed my reflection. My apologies Chancellor Tucker who, speaking at my graduation from TCU, reminded us that we were educated to know how to ask quality questions of diverse sources. I am not as intentionally diverse as one could be, ought to be, in this time of open access and information overload. Everyone has a perspective. I have trusted media organizations reporting on the “news” of the day as if several alternative universes existed. The American melting pot narrative has yielded a spicy Mulligan stew where there is no general agreement on the ingredients of the roux or liquid to create the base.

A required “gap” experience of two years of civil service for all high school graduates may be the only liquid capable of reviving and renewing an appreciation for our neighbor’s experience and desire for the “American dream.” Is this dream more than a chicken in every pot, a job, high speed Internet, a car, and line of credit?

Life
Liberty
Pursuit of happiness
Profit at all cost
Equal opportunity under the law
Freedom from religion or freedom of religion
Equal access to the systems of decision making
Equal access to the systems of power, finance, and government

Make your own list. What are five or six tangible characteristics or aspects of the American dream you desire for your neighbor and yourself?

My reading and watching left me wondering what America is known for then and now. America, home of . . .

HBO, “The Newsroom,” 2012. Season 1 Episode 1

At the core of the musical (Hamilton) is the founding — reimagined, re-mythologized, rough-edged. A mess of contradictions, like this nation on its 244th birthday.
Let’s Finish the American Revolution
Timothy Egan, NYTimes.com Opinion, July 3, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/opinion/fourth-of-july.html?smid=em-share

A great debate about who should remain on which pedestals can be a healthy one. The right’s idea that we must preserve the worst figures to protect the best is idiotic. The left’s idea that we should bring down the best because we know who they were at their worst is no less so. An intelligent society should be able to make intelligent distinctions, starting with the one between those who made our union more perfect and those who made it less.
After the Statues Fall
Bret Stephens, NYTimes.com Opinion, June 26, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/statues-protests.html?smid=em-share

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage,
Need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Maya Angelou, On The Pulse Of Morning. Delivered January 20, 1993 at the Inauguration of President Clinton.

You know, it’s almost like what happened to me with COVID. I was asymptomatic, right? I wasn’t expressing, I wasn’t actively doing anything. But that didn’t mean that I wasn’t a danger to other people … I think it can be like that with race and bias and white supremacy, too. You don’t have to actively be a part of it or be actively displaying signs of it. But that doesn’t mean that in your wake, damage and pain and terrible things aren’t happening … you could be asymptomatic in biases and supremacy and racism, too.
D. L. Hughley: ‘Everybody Knows’ Independence Day Didn’t Free Us All. NPR Weekend Edition Saturday, July 4, 2020

For some serious, in your face and under your skin course language comedy truth, Google, “George Carlin American Pride.” Also, watch his speech at the National Press Club for some thoughts on language. I am not placing the videos here knowing that his language will offend.

And, like many around the world my companion and I watched “Hamilton” this weekend.

History has its eye on you and on us. All of us in these United States of America.