greatness is as greatness does

Wry Banter

each time I hear the phrase “make America great again” uttered by the MAGA cult leader or any of his disciples, I think to myself, “to what time in our history does he/they want to take us back?” Now, let me pose a direct question to you. When has America ever been great? Do not suspect my patriotism or allegiance, just yet please; hear me out.

To answer my own question let me first ask another. When have America’s most basic ideals, envisioned by its founding members, and codified into its Constitution, of liberty and equality under the law for everyone, regardless of race, gender, national heritage, or religious beliefs, been realized by all citizens who call America their home?

I am sure there would be offered an example of America’s greatness when it first gained its independence from England after the Revolutionary War. My explicit agreement would insist that the courage demonstrated by the men and women of our Continental Army inspired acts of great valor through which they achieved a great victory, but it’s a stretch to say that a young, undeveloped country just untethered from its colonial roots was great compared to other European countries. We had not even articulated our founding, but seriously flawed, principles at the time. American armed forces, during World Wars I and II, exhibited altruistic courage, although we were not threatened, by fighting two wars against oppressive tyrants in Europe instead of adopting an isolationist posture. The defeat of the Nazis is certainly one of the greatest shared victories achieved in our nation’s young history.

Some of us forget just how young our country is compared to its African, Asian and European counterparts. A 250-year-old infant country hardly gives historians an adequate arc of time to determine the measure of its greatness. Despite our dearth of aged wisdom, should we call America great when it is a reflection primarily of its offensive military strength? Likewise, can a nation’s greatness be measured by its willingness to use its military power?

More recent wars involving American military forces have been far more ambiguous regarding their necessity, moral imperatives, execution, and outcomes. At such a juncture, is it time for America to more willingly demonstrate that exercising restraint is a manifestation of strength while employing diplomacy to resolve conflicts? A preference for and recognition of diplomacy as the primary problem-solving approach would reflect ideals that are aspirationally worthy of mimicking by other countries.

Similarly, I can imagine being told repeatedly of the wondrous economic opportunities available in America and how it has made many poor immigrants wealthy. Does everyone have access to those opportunities? People of color have historically been denied the same level of access to these opportunities, through various means, as their white, male counterparts. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, xenophobia, discriminatory zoning laws and lending practices, violence as well as a host of more subtle, but no less effective, means of denial.

You may recall the story of the Tulsa, OK massacre and how nothing was done to hold those accountable for the deaths of Black folks and damage to their property. In 1921, a section of Tulsa, called Greenwood, contained a shopping district that was owned by prominent, well-off African Americans. Its name, Black Wall Street, was indicative of the economic success the shop owners enjoyed. Over the course of two days, in response to rising racial tension in Tulsa, an angry white mob murdered several Black people in this thriving business community and burned their shops to the ground. Just 23 years earlier, a similar event occurred in Wilmington, NC when a duly elected, biracial government was violently overthrown by white supremacists. Hard reset.

The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 may as well have been called the Attorney Employment Act, as they were employed for their legal skullduggery by individuals, governments, and companies to circumvent the intent of the laws derived therefrom. White, male powerbrokers were more than happy to accept business from minorities while simultaneously maintaining a ‘safe’ social distance from them. “Money is green regardless of the color of the hand from which it comes.” This kind of disenfranchisement has caused enormous, long-lasting, negative, implications for the social fabric of the nation.

After the passage of the Civil rights Act, it was discovered that mortgage lenders and loan underwriters were withholding approval unless minority applicants paid higher interest rates than their white counterparts, ostensibly due to the greater risk they posed of foreclosure. Subsequently, the Truth in Lending Act was passed in 1968 to prevent devious lenders from making certain classes of loan applicants pay higher rates or fees. Today, barriers to achieve economic freedom remain for many of America’s poorest and most vulnerable. If, in the words of William E. Gladstone, “Justice delayed is justice denied,” it follows that opportunity delayed is opportunity denied.

How do we, if we must, reconcile disparate views of what constitutes greatness in vastly different situations? In a brief study of contrasting opinions, an unemployed, undocumented, immigrant, single mother may call America great when she finally gets a doctor’s appointment at a free public health clinic for her sick child. A multi-billionaire hedge fund manager may only deem America great when it repetitively rewards him with an ROI of three figures. Aren’t these extreme, disparate examples of greatness not only in conflict with some of humanity’s most inalienable moral rights, but are they not also in conflict with the very foundation of what transforms a people into a nation?

Why should a nation’s greatness be measured by its economic prowess based on the stock markets’ performance, GDP, or employment rate? Would a more worthy standard be its ability to expect from, and hold accountable under the rule of law, those people in positions of power, to grant an equal opportunity for every citizen to reap the benefits of their labor, using incentives and rewards, not obstacles?

Another phrase, “make every day count by living life to its fullest,” has become an acceptable excuse for the ultra-wealthy to publicly flaunt some of the most opulent, ostentatious lifestyles imaginable. For example, taking one’s personal helicopter for a day trip to a remote, ecologically sensitive Pacific Island to walk on a pristine beach littered with bleached dead coral while enjoying a private, unobstructed view of a dramatic sunset. Juxtapose this image with a young boy living in a high-rise, one bedroom tenement in the inner city who sees a sunset only through a dirty window and the smoky haze of industry and commerce. Such a stark contrast makes a mockery of the perceived equal opportunity afforded everyone.

Will the 99% always struggle to realize their American dreams of living in a great country as the 1% race, pell-mell, to wrest as much more wealth as possible from them? If such a trend continues, will the 99% soon be unable to purchase the goods and services offered by the 1%? Is this when the reset button gets pushed? Will infighting begin among the 1% class as each attempt to dislodge the person on the bottom of the economic ladder into the mass of the 99%, creating an ever-shrinking fraction of the economic opportunity that allowed them to thrive in the first place? Does the despair and helplessness of the 99% boil over into protests, riots, and eventually a class war?

We were at this point in the 19^th century, when African slaves were used as disposable property and counted as three-fifths the value of a white male for government representation. The southern aristocracy refused to give up their economic engine – African slave toil – for the perceived moral (Christian?) benefits of charity and compassion. The Civil War caused a hard reset to the southern states’ economies and a soft reset to the nation’s. Do we really need to prosecute another Civil War? How can we prevent this dystopian hellscape from becoming reality…again?

We could stop talking at one another in sound bites like we hear and complain about in the news and begin listening to one another with empathy and open minds. We could quit repeating hurtful memes that only push opposing sides into more entrenched positions. To jettison the repeated error of negotiating from positions and start negotiating from principles may yield tangible results.

America’s greatness will never be defined by one person’s vision of realizing a vague, ill-defined remembrance of former glory days, but in a shared vision of fundamental ideals that are well articulated as the most basic rights of every human living within its borders. Our nation’s greatness cannot be derived from an internal harmonious balance due to an exclusive, homogenous, and monolithic culture, but it may from its commitment to identify and solve problems together, as well as celebrate its occasional cultural messiness, derived from inclusive diversity.

Metaphorically speaking, America’s glass is half full, not half empty as some would have you believe. America’s test and achievement of greatness is before it, not in the past. Its greatness is being assessed every day by disenfranchised minorities. Its greatness will be tested again when our leaders finally recognize our past failures to extend the most basic rights to these same minorities, rights that are guaranteed in the U. S. Constitution. Its greatness will only be achieved when it embraces these past transgressions, at a moral inflection point, and begins immediately to redress them until they are a distant memory for future generations.

Can we simultaneously remember that the most endemic, visible domestic problems in America do not highlight the country’s failures but point us toward the low-hanging fruit of opportunities to make life better for everyone by extending a helping hand to the least fortunate among us? Would, from that spark of altruism, compassion and empathy, flow other equally enormous benefits so every American could exclaim, “We are great!?” Would this give the most fearful among us the courage to turn from a political abyss, to never again embrace authoritarianism fueled by gaslighting, race-baiting, class warfare, hatemongering, and fearmongering, all based on lies and half-truths?