A More Perfect Union

Growing up I was taught in history class that our country was a melting pot. People came to the United States from all over the world to escape religious and political persecution, and poverty. Folklore has it that when our ancestors arrived at Ellis Island, they moved into the cities where they faced hardships that tested their resolve but, ultimately, a better life was worth their struggles if not for themselves, then for us -- their offspring. I saw the black and white pictures of the disheveled, proud, old-looking, young immigrants, learned the motto, “E. Pluribus Unum” (“From many, one”), and believed that America was the place where all different kinds of people came together to make their dreams come true.

Recently, I read about a speech given at a immigration/overpopulation conference in Washington, D.C. in May 2005 by Richard Lamm, former Governor of Colorado, entitled “How to Destroy America” which challenged my understanding of our country’s doctrine. The speaker addressed those among us in this country who found America to be “too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich” and offered a plan. He mocked that we should “invent multiculturalism” and “include dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties.” He said we should honor “diversity over unity.” He also talked about the downfalls of the most powerful empires in history due, in part, to “local patriotism.” As I read his words, I wondered if the America founded by our forefathers was not already on this dangerous path toward segregation and, ultimately, oblivion.

We hear the term “diversity” so much today. I think it actually replaced “Affirmative Action” which was established to ensure the hiring of minorities and abolish discrimination in business. And just like affirmative action, diversity is getting a lot of publicity -- big companies have set up committees to implement it, cultural leaders discuss it, and children are being taught to “celebrate” it. The word itself means “variety” or “mixture” – which, of course, was what we were taught in school was the actual identity of America, right? So why is this diversity issue a new thing? Did we suddenly realize that as the arms of the Statue of Liberty welcomed the masses she turned a blind eye to labeling and prejudice and ridicule? Maybe. But is this movement to focus on our differences starting to separate us into our own camps, soon to be raising our own flags, practicing our own customs, enforcing our own rules, and speaking our own languages?

Now, I am a watcher of human behavior, a writer of articles and books about women and self-esteem and interpersonal relationships, so you may think this to be off-topic. But isn’t getting along in the world a matter of establishing and maintaining healthy, peaceful relationships, which include compromise, tolerance, respect, and love?

As you enjoy the freedom to be yourself, remember what it means to be part of a group of people struggling to live and breathe and raise their families alongside one another … remember the words of our Constitution:

“We the people in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Enjoying the expression of our diverse cultures should not prevent us from uniting as was the intention and supreme directive of our forefathers. As we should respect one another’s uniqueness, we should also demonstrate and take pride in our unity as “… one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.”

I think we have misidentified our enemies in moments of fear, confusion, and anguish. Our enemies are not one another; they are not gays, the elderly, handicapped, poor, or minorities. Our enemies are poverty, disease, illiteracy, prejudice, terrorism, and war. Instead of encouraging today’s leadership with their soapbox rantings in the name of religion and God, and their attempts at passing laws which curtail the lifestyles and behaviors of the “unacceptable” populace, we must support leaders who abandon that hypocrisy and lead us back into a state of grace with the world, whose goals are to address basic quality of life issues, which as a truly unified people, we could work on and improve for everyone.

Right now, I challenge all of us to create a more perfect union. It must start in our neighborhoods and expand to the towns and cities, then into all states from the Atlantic to the Pacific, then throughout the hemisphere, and finally all over the planet. “Indivisible” means “inseparable,” which means “incapable of being separated.” Not just in a moment when our towers fall and friends die.

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

 Audrey Valeriani resides in the Boston area. She is an author, freelance writer, host of www.TheAccidentalExpert.com, and Relationship Expert for www.TheSpotter.net.

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