I've been writing at least one blog post a month for nearly a decade now, and it has generally been a joy to write each post. However, that has really changed over the last year. I like to write stuff related to current events, but current events have just been so damned dreary lately. With that in mind, I've decided to write about something positive this month. So instead of commenting on current events this month, I'm just going to attempt to answer the question below.
What is America?
Before attempting to answer this question, let me make it clear that in the context of this question, "America" represents the United States of America.
So, that being said, in the most literal sense, one could define America to simply be the land mass consisting of the 50 states. However, I've never considered America to be defined by its territory, or the by people who live within its boarders at any given time. I've always considered America to be an idea.
America is the idea that anyone in the world can be an American. Well, I guess that's not entirely true, but to paraphrase Anton Ego, not everyone can become an American, but a great American can come from anywhere. I know a lot of people in Trump's America believe immigration dilutes America's greatness, but I believe immigration is the engine that drives American greatness. I feel that nobody is more American than somebody who is willing to uproot their lives in another country to come to America. Natural born American citizens often take citizenship for granted because they never made a conscious choice to be American. I'm not saying that natural born American don't love America, but is it a different kind of love than the love immigrants have. A natural born American loves America the way a child loves a parent. An American immigrant loves America with the kind of passion one might feel for a sweetheart. I'm not saying that people who were born in the USA don't love their native country deeply, but the love you choose always comes with more passion. For our country to stay strong, we need new immigrants that have a passion for the country they chose.
I firmly believe that other the nations with largely homogeneous populations and cultures will never be able to match the the greatness of America's diverse population. As long as the United States continues to encourage a diverse population of immigrants to come to the USA, the United States will be drawing from a larger talent pool than the rest of the world. When a difficult problems needs to be solved, Germany can tackle that problem with the most talented German people, Japan can tackle that problem with the most talented Japanese people, India can tackle the problem with the most talented Indian people, and China can tackle the problem with the most talented Chinese people. However, America can tackle the problem with talented and daring immigrants who came from Germany, Japan, India, and China, along with native born Americans and immigrants from many other nations. There's a reason why Americans' keep winning Noble Prizes and that a disproportionate number of those Nobel Prize winners are America immigrants.
I also believe that America means the opportunity to achieve one's dreams. America doesn't always live up to the ideal of the America Dream ( consider how much discrimination there is and how much the laws favor the wealthy ), but the ideal is something the nation should always be striving for.
I know a lot of people who think we need to "Make America Great Again" ( MAGA ), don't agree with my definition of America or Americans. The "again" in MAGA implies that our nation's greatness lies in our past, while I believe that it lies in our future. Those who believe in MAGA feel that our nation will become less great if it becomes less Christian, less English-speaking, and less connected to Western culture ( which for some, means less white ). They feel that an America full of non-Christian, non-English-speaking, and non-Western people won't be America anymore. I couldn't disagree more. If America evolves into a largely Spanish-speaking nation in which white English-speaking Christian people are a distinct minority, it will still be America if the it lives up to the ideals or opportunity, freedom, and inclusiveness. If we are still a democratic nation in which political parties can argue the issues of the day without fear of repercussions from the government, we will still be America, regardless of the language the politicians are arguing in. If people are still free to worship ( or not worship ) they way they please, we will still be America regardless of whether most people are praying in a church, a mosque, a synagogue, or a temple. I'd agree with "Make America Great Again", if they dropped the "Again", and added an "er". I would hope that's something we could all agree with. We should all want to "Make America Greater". However, America won't became greater just because we want it to. It is going to take a lot of work, and we are not going to be able to do it until all of us are willing to work together. Those who want to shun our newest wave of immigrants would should remember our nation's founding motto.
E pluribus unum ( Out of many, one )
Rich
