America was never great...
And yet it always was. That dichotomy has haunted our nation since it's founding in 1776. Jefferson's document espousing independence spoke of inalienable rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", a truly enlightened document reflective of the high hopes of that age. The rough draft even went so far as to call for abolishing slavery but that was quickly edited to appease the slave holding colonies.
In our time as a nation, we have seen, time and again, the power of right over might. Religious freedom for all people, something the early colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia would have been appalled by, was accepted as rule of law. When the loose, unstructured "Articles of Confederacy" threatened to tear the country apart after our war for independence, a constitution was born, along with its "Bill of Rights", creating a republic with all its glorious institutions which were entirely new and unique to the modern world. Yet, people of color were still viewed as less than human and women equally so.
A civil war raged across this country, and yet the hope of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" persisted. In that war's aftermath, as new freemen made their way into communities across the country, laws were passed to limit the former slaves from participating in government or even society itself. The controlling powers were able to convince the poor whites that opposing the free blacks and supporting Jim Crow would increase their station, but they were only pawns in the game.
All the while, the country would continue its program of assault and diminishment against its native peoples, which had been occurring since the times before the revolution.
Yet, progress persisted.
Immigrants would pour into this country in the years following its Civil War, each with the hope of finding a more prosperous life than the one they left behind. Every immigrant class in this country has faced its own discrimination and struggle at times, yet the country has always found a way to remain a melting pot.
As the country became industrialized, workers were abused and used by their overlords. Yet those same workers would fight and spill their own blood to ensure the rights of all workers and through their efforts, organized labor would be born.
Women came into their own through suffrage. They protested and were assaulted and abused but through that fight they won the right for women to vote.
Two world wars and a Great Depression swept up the country in a hardship that would last through two generations. But through those struggles we made a New Deal and created a safety net for our countries seniors and we finally integrated our armed services. Out of those conflicts, the country would emerge stronger than ever.
And yet, all were not free. The Fabulous Fifties and the veneer of peace and prosperity would be a thin veil covering the blot of segregation across the land. The fight for equal and civil rights would lead to the birth of a dream, the spilling of saintly blood, and the first acceptance in this country since its birth that "all men" truly were created equally".
As years passed, the struggles continued. Equal Rights Acts and Voting Rights Acts and Medicare and Medicaid and a "Great society" and Row v Wade, each step striving to mold and create a country that would live up to the ideals of its founders, or, more precisely, one which was better than the founders limited world view could have imagined.
In the face of that progress, the country would experience war, both red hot and ice cold, as well as corruption from its leaders and yet through it all, the republic remained.
Even those on the extreme sidelines of society who happened to love those of the same sex or who were born identifying with a sex they were not biologically born with would eventually gain acceptance. But it took extreme fighting and a healthcare epidemic which struck down far too many souls before those causes would gain the light of day and ultimately begin to attain acceptance.
And here we are in 2017. With every great advancement for human rights in this country's history, there have been those who vocally stood against that progress and longed for days gone by where bigotry and racism and sexism were acceptable. Make no mistake, when anyone says they wish to "Make America Great Again" that is what they are referring to, even if they cloak that phrase in the idea of bringing back jobs or stimulating the economy in places left behind in the modern world. At every step, some individuals have heard that plea for a return to "the old days" and have taken a stand against progress, many times violently. Despite that, the ideal that we are all created equally and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness continues to provide the lifeblood of this country.
The fight for a better, more civil, more humane country goes on, because America was never great...and yet it always was.
