From: Bob Pitman
Columbus
We have been here before. In his inaugural speech of March 1861, our new president said:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory … will swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will, by the better angels of our nature.”
Then, the ultimate apex of national division was about to descend into four years of civil war, where as many as 750,000 Americans died. But at the end of it, more than 4 million enslaved Americans were freed, or at least received a promise of freedom.
The Fourth of July is a time of national celebration, where we can both honor our achievements, while reflecting on those ways where we have fallen short of America’s promise.
As the famed scholar of democracy Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
Or in the words of one of the most common of American presidents, Harry S. Truman: “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”
When future generations look back on 2018, what will they say?
And what responsibility do we have today to shape that response?
Should we muse as Abraham Lincoln did? He said, “My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.”
