Those annoying countdown clocks the cable TV networks use to let us know how much time remains before a presidential address or something else regarded as worthy of our attention might be useful as America begins the countdown to the 250th anniversary of the publication of the Declaration of Independence.
A question that would be helpful for discussion during our increasingly divided times might be: “What does it mean to be an American?" Is it defined in the lyric of the Lee Greenwood song that says, “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free”? That doesn’t fully answer the question: What is an American and, even more, what is America?
Schoolchildren once studied such things before American history was rewritten in many public schools and universities to fit a progressive narrative. They learned that the country was named for the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, whose claim to fame was the discovery that the land he was exploring, the New World, was not a part of Asia, but a separate continent. German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller used Vespucci’s first name, whose Latin version was “Americus,” to label the future United States on a map he drew in 1507. The name “America” was quickly and universally accepted. Today, we might have had a naming contest.
That still doesn’t answer the questions as to what is America and who are Americans? Frank Sinatra gave his answer in a song titled “The House I Live In.” In the run-up to singing it, Sinatra’s narration includes: “Only in America could all that's happened to me happen to a guy like me. Anywhere else, I might have wound up digging coal.”
That gets close to answering the questions. America is a land of opportunity for those who can see it and seize it. If you can’t make it here, you are unlikely to do as well anywhere else. America is also about overcoming obstacles. Their stories used to inspire people who had a bad start in life before we accepted the false notion that we are entitled to what others own and don’t have to work for it.
America is an idea in a continuing quest for the ideal. When we have failed to live up to the Declaration and our constitutional principles, we don’t give up. We try to make things right because we have a standard — a foundation — that defines what is right. “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Such truths (“endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights”) helped us overcome the evil scourge of slavery and the denial of civil rights to those who descended from the enslaved. What other nation offers such opportunities and hope?
Freedom is not “just another word for nothing left to lose,” as Janis Joplin sang. But with freedom comes responsibility, including the expectation it will be renewed by each succeeding generation. As Ronald Reagan correctly stated: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Let’s have a conversation during these next 365 days about what it means to be an American and what we will do to renew America for the next generation while preserving it for the current ones.
In answer to the questions about America and Americans, it’s hard to improve on the motto inscribed on the Great Seal of the United States — E pluribus unum, "from many, one.” Let the countdown begin.
Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for his latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
