By Edwin Cooney
I never thought I’d find it, but I did and if you really think about it, you can too! I mean the key to American Greatness! I’m so excited that I’m tempted to blurt it out right here and now, but I think I’ll wait a few paragraphs before letting you in on my golden secret. First of all, let’s define when a state of national greatness exists whether in America or in any other nation.
A state of national greatness exists when a nation institutes, within its body politic, a quality that’s rare among the nations of the world. It has to be an entity that inspires, includes and rewards its people. It can be, and indeed it must be, encoded in the law, but it has to be above or beyond the stricture of law. It must reflect “the better angels” of human nature.
Americans have waxed eloquent on countless Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Veterans’ Day celebrations on the greatness of America. Usually the emphasis has to do with the sacrifices we’ve made in war or the benefits of freedom guaranteed under our Constitution and protected by the great traditions and alliances we’ve made. Outside of these patriotic celebrations, Americans are less clear as to what constitutes American Greatness.
Back in the 1960s, the late great Paul Harvey used to assert that the zenith of American greatness occurred during the 19th century when, as he used to put it, “…we minded our own business so well that other nations began to imitate us.”
Others believe that America became really great when it followed FDR’s admonition made during his first inaugural address that we adopt as a key element of our foreign policy the mantle of “the good neighbor.” The Good Neighbor policy became the basis of our intervention on the side of Great Britain in its struggle against Nazi tyranny. That led to the founding of the United Nations, the launching of the Marshall Plan and the NATO alliance, and the subsequent Cold War vanquishment of world communism.
Abraham Lincoln believed that the key to our greatness lay in our acceptance of Jefferson’s phrase in the Declaration of Independence that “…all men are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights. That among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Contrary to most people’s interpretation of President Lincoln’s reference to the immortal Jeffersonian assertion, Mr. Lincoln wasn’t stating a fact. He was stating an ideal and an exceedingly vital ideal it is. After all, a nation left to simmer in the caldron of world cynicism will never be a “great nation.” As I see it, 21st Century Americans have become so overwhelmed by reality that they have totally lost their ability to set a national goal that’s sufficiently inclusive to inspire a national will. The last time we created such a national will was in May of 1961 when President Kennedy set the goal of landing a man on the moon by 1970 and returning him safely to earth. That goal wasn’t universally endorsed. It was expensive and it seemed to be more about competing with the Russians than anything else. Americans with competing domestic agendas such as the war on poverty, civil rights for minorities, and adequate funding for education saw little human benefit in the science necessary to send an astronaut to and from the moon. Only with the passage of time did we discover all the the medical and scientific advances which came with space exploration which were not even imagined when the newly elected John F. Kennedy proposed it to Congress on Wednesday, May 25th, 1961.
This Monday, February 6th, 2017 marks the beginning of the third full week of the Trump administration. President Trump had promised to “make America great again.” He is determined to right the wrongs the world community has visited on America in recent decades. He insists that America has been victimized by international greed. He says that this greed has stolen our jobs, sapped our economic and moral strength, and made us look foolish in the eyes of the whole world. Millions of Americans, as they view our ever-changing world with all its uncertainties, are drawn to the president’s assessment of our position in the world. Shifting social and economic conditions and the legitimacy of climate change forecasts make the future more cloudy than is comfortable for most of us. In short, we enter this unpredictable presidential administration with more worries than solutions. Hence, I offer the key to American Greatness!
What the president is really saying is that we live in a world without justice and to a large extent he’s right. As I see it, however, the president is going about attaining justice for Americans in the most ineffective way possible. Threats to send troops into Mexico or to retaliate against Iran will only exacerbate international tension. The truth is that a just world abroad and a just society here at home are not attainable by settling scores. Part of the problem with the attainment of justice is its popular definition.
Justice is too often seen as the protection of the good from the wicked rather than the triumphal success of the many.
On several occasions over the last twelve years in the life of this column, I’ve stated my favorite definition of justice.
Justice exists when an individual becomes all he is capable of becoming and is rewarded when successful. Injustice, on the other hand, exists when a person is prevented from becoming all he is capable of becoming and is punished when he fails. This is the Greek philosopher Plato’s definition of justice. It’s broader than the judiciary system and akin to our spiritual values. Justice is something to which we’re all entitled and, even more, justice is something we all must guarantee to others.
For the past 241 years, America has become a beacon of social and economic liberty. However, more than anything else, liberty depends on justice. The creation of a just society will require us to acknowledge and know one another better and more thoroughly than ever before. A free society must first and foremost be a fair society putting justice first, rather than settling scores with domestic and international antagonists. This constitutes the ultimate foundation of liberty.
President Lincoln was right in his idealism. Ideals set the national agenda in every generation.
There’s no better example of idealism than what is found in the Declaration of Independence. Come on, Mr. President — cease feeding your angry vanity and commence working for justice on behalf of all humanity!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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