Our history is worth remembering, both the good and the bad. Today we can take a moment to consider where we have been and where we want to go. If you don’t know your country’s history or your own history for that matter then you don’t know who you are.
Our Country was created on a set of ideals. We are the first, perhaps the only, nation that “holds as self-evident truths that all men [and women] are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and that governments are instituted to protect those rights and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. I think that it can be argued that we weren’t perfect when we were founded or since but we have made great strides towards accomplishing the founders ideals with positive movement towards equal rights, religious tolerance, liberty, rule of law, democracy, equality, and limited government.
A particular stain on our human rights record was slavery. Although slavery was common place in the 18th century that does not lessen the evilness of that practice. We were, however, the second country to ban it and fought a civil war at the cost of 600,000 lives to end the practice. Had Lincoln not been assassinated, the Jim Crow laws would probably not have been enacted and the freed slaves would have found a much easier reintegration into society. We also did not treat Native Americans with honor in violating many of the treaties we signed. We now have a consensus that the Native American rights are to be recognized.
We have expended vast amounts of blood and treasure to protect the world from fascism, religious persecution, and communism by fighting World War I and II, Cold War, Vietnam War, Korean War, and supporting freedom in the Middle East. We fought these wars not for territory or to enrich our country but to defeat ideologies that we felt weren’t in line with our founding values. We have rebuilt the countries we defeated in World War II. In 2017, we spent $35.1 Billion on economic assistance to 100 countries. Since 1975, the number of countries considered to be electoral democracies have increased from 46 to 132. We must accept the inevitable collateral damage of innocents including the west coast internment camps, innocent lives, and property losses in these wars and conflicts.
The Bill of Rights and the American economy have established the US as a beacon of hope for freedom loving people of the world. According to Gallup, 750 million of the worlds’ adult population would leave their country if they could, 158 million or 21% of that number would like to immigrate to the US. From both legal and illegal immigration, 44.5 million or 14.5% of the US population were non-US citizens at birth as of 2017. Capitalism has raised more people out of poverty around the world than any other economic system, which both China and Russia have now recognized. Our market based economy has allowed us to have choices and competitive prices like no other nation on the planet. We have largely created a society where the opportunity to succeed is available to all who are willing to work hard.
The “War on Poverty” which began in 1964 has spent $22trillion in the last 50 years providing cash, food, housing and medical care to poor and low-income Americans. Americans gave $427.71 billion to charities in 2018. Poverty and homelessness remain challenges despite the resources expended.
There is no other country in the history of the world who can claim these facts. The US is exceptional. We need to stand up for our country when its actions are in line with our founding values and be ready to communicate our displeasure to our leaders when they are on the wrong track.
