Renewing America’s Promise
“What the American people want is very simple. They want an America as good as its promise.”
– Barbara Jordan
On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was adopted as the foundational document of the United States of America, the culmination of many years of thought, dialogue, change and struggle.
Our country’s founders put their names and lives on the line to form a nation based on an original, revolutionary idea - that it is self-evident all people are created equal, that they are endowed by Nature’s God with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
When Thomas Jefferson articulated the core philosophy of this new country he drew on ideals of individual liberty drawn from the Magna Carta, Enlightenment philosophers, the Iroquois Confederacy and others. He took current ideas in the hearts and minds of the American people and applied them to the present situation. He used his considerable intellect and imagination and gave substance to a new way of organizing ourselves as a society - as a democracy.
E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
We scarcely realize today just how incredible this was. E pluribus unum was inconsistent with all previous human experience. “One over many” was the way things had always been. “Out of many, one” had no direct historical precedent. Democracy is creating common understanding among people - not one person or elite group deciding and telling others what to do - it is a sharing of ideas, power and responsibility.
America is the first nation founded on an idea, built on a foundation of belief.
Liberty, freedom, independence, democracy. These words are used somewhat interchangeably to describe the precious foundation of our country that connects us in a common bond of shared humanity.
There were many religious philosophies and sects in the colonies competing for power, position and souls and Jefferson deliberately avoided referencing any specific ideology. America is built on a spiritual foundation of the universal values that are the origin of all the world’s religions with reference to Nature’s God and natural law. The Declaration of Independence transcends religious particulars, uniting all citizens in a single covenant, securing freedom of and from religion.
By law, church and state are separate in America but, by tradition, religion and politics are interdependent. Religion shapes our values. Politics is the way you get things done in a democracy by guiding policy through discussion among various parts of a society and influencing decisions.
Democracy is an action word. It’s not something we have; it’s something we do. Our democracy is ever changing and the citizens participate as change makers.
When religious people are involved in guiding the values that shape public life through participating in the political process, the separation of church and state are not violated. Violation occurs when churches as institutions are partisan and advocate for a particular party or candidate.
The founders including Thomas Jefferson are now considered heroes but they were never saints. They were flawed human beings. We know they kept slaves and excluded women and all minorities while brilliantly proclaiming freedom and justice for all. We are continually working to reconcile these inconsistencies that have continued throughout our history.
There were powerful forces in conflict at the time of the founding which are struggling to tip the balance in their own favor. Should decision-making be limited to the wealthy elite or shared with the masses? Should benefits bestow to selected people or all people? What’s the correct balance between self-interest and the common good? Under what circumstances should government help people and when should people be expected to fend for themselves? Who wins and who loses?
If we forget our authentic history and the principles on which our nation was founded, we’re at the mercy of those who articulate it for us to achieve their own goals.
Our most respected leaders including Abraham Lincoln, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led from a position of values. They brought moral and religious intent to the resolution of political conflict.
Hundreds of thousands of grass roots activists are stepping forward to do whatever they can to renew the promise of democracy. There’s never been a time in our history when so many people are intensely, intelligently engaged in the political process.
Change must come from the grassroots. It is very difficult for Congress and the Legislature to make changes from within. We must help our elected representatives find solid moral ground and use their voices and positions to actively apply America’s core values to their work and help renew our vital democracy.
The promise of democracy has been frequently broken causing great pain and suffering. When the promise is kept wonderful things happen. Events of the past six years have put democracy in great peril and the need for renewal right now is critical! If we energetically, relentlessly, cooperatively and intentionally work to renew our democracy by restoring our core values, other serious issues will fall into place.
Our country cannot be great unless it is also good and includes everyone.
Democracy is a work in progress - never finished, never perfect, always hopeful, rooted in faith in principles, confidence in we the people and optimism for future generations. Our grandchildren are depending upon us and will hold us accountable.
Working together, we can believe again in America and renew the promise of democracy!
Phyllis Stenerson, Minneapolis, MN. is a long-time grassroots activist who publishes communication products expressing a progressive worldview. www.ProgressiveValues.org / phyllis@progressivevalues.org
Undeclaration
It was a good idea, once
inalienable rights and the abolition
of tyranny, but
we’ve mucked it up, this great
American Experiment
our own inbred aristocracy madder
that noon-baked Englishmen with
crimes and usurpations running amok,
torn bodies and new hatreds in every
casbah tentacles
in every pocket and a
knife at every throat
and we wage slave
descendants of the free, the free-ers
sinking in the refuse of yesterday’s bargains
punch clocked and jackbooting our way
to the fossil record at the speed of credit
with no payments ’til 2009 –
a toxic spoor of ruined
places, broken lives and gulags.
We had a bad run but it’s time
to come clean,
to admit our failure to
examine the bloody Manifest
of our imagined Destiny.
Time to Repent
for mass graves and wars of false premise,
for all those dictators, our murky turkeys lurking
in every hot satrapy with trained goons keeping
bloody order and a quota of disappeared.
Time to admit
it was a mistake
made in the bravado of youth and rejoin
the Commonwealth
Stop seeing stars and turn in our
bloody stripes
be Britons again
take tea and healthcare claim
our place lordless
in the house of commons where
Empire is only a memory
best forgotten.
– Al Markowitz
As Americans, we are defined not by our military, our leaders, nor our culture. We’re defined by our ideals. The ideals on which this country was founded, and by which we live, are our profound inheritance. They are every generation’s to safeguard, or to squander.
As Americans, we hold foremost dear the ideal that people and the press should be free to speak of politics or religion without fear of government or private retribution. In fact, we should remind ourselves that they should be encouraged to do so. After all, democracy itself is an ideal, and it needs idealism. And criticism. And the arguments that follow.
A democracy invites and tolerates the clash of opinions, and understands its obligation to search for common ground. A democracy recognizes that there are intelligent people supporting each side of every issue. Every truth has an answering truth. There exists no issue facing us truly as simple as a choice between two absolutes. If we cannot have open discourse about the ideals by which we live, then we do not live in a democracy.
Upholding the ideal of democracy means never suppressing an opposing opinion. Upholding the ideal of democracy means never dissuading ourselves from speaking out, despite those who would criticize, ridicule, or otherwise attempt to prevent us from doing so. After all, contrary opinion is not treason; dissent is not weakness in the national resolve. Freedom dies when citizens follow leaders without question.
Democracy begins in conversation, and ends in silence. It is fueled by truth, and crippled by fear. By reminding ourselves this and every Fourth of July that the survival of our democracy and our ideals rests on our freedom to think and speak our minds, we honor our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and the countless Americans who have died to defend them.
Thank you, Phyllis, for a beautiful essay reminding us of the promise of demcoracy. Peace.
Somewhat disappointing, even disillusioning to check out the author’s website and find little more there besides an advertisment to order the author’s book. Hardly worthy of an .org suffix. More honest would have been a .com domain.
Dear Phyllis… point of clarification, please…
You say, “religion shapes our values.” Might we change that more honestly to “religion shapes many people’s values.” I’m not certain I understand the overt conflation in this essay of religion, democracy and the mission of the grassroots.
I’m an American and an active participant in the pro-peace, pro-democracy progressive grassroots movement, but religion doesn’t shape my values at all.
True, the diverse religions in our nation do shape the values of millions of Americans who practice them. I honor and respect that.
But religion does not shape the values of millions of Americans, like myself, who practice no religion at all. Our values are of our own making. They’re not prescribed, they’re reasoned. And our reasoned values do permit us to abide by our nation’s secular laws.
In the June 24th issue of The Nation, The American Religious Identification Survey states that “more than 29 million adults - one in seven Americans - declare themselves to be without religion.” I would venture to say that amongst those 29 million non-religious adults, a number of them are involved in progressive grassroots politics.
One final note… You say, “The Declaration of Independence transcends religious particulars, uniting all citizens in a single covenant, securing freedom of and from religion.”
The Declaration of Independence never mentions “religion” and makes no statement that secures “freedom of and from religion.” That freedom, however, is clearly prescribed in our Constitution.
George W. Bush Movin’ Out Campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB6PNTKM2xg
B.ush
U.S.
S.oldiers
H.ome!
“Democracy is an action word”?! The paragraph that starts with those words is very confusing. Sounds like some TV stuff “I do democracy” . What is your definition of democracy? If democracy is ever changing how can you define it?
The next paragraph certainly lowers the bar for inclusion of exclusive religious thought into the laws of the land. When “religious” lawmakers pass laws that reduce ones freedom of choice and impose their ways on everyone then that violates the separation of church and state. As we see when All Saints Episcopalian is persecuted for an innocuous sermon while the right wing churches and “men of god’ who are promoting the GOP are not, the separation of church and state is honored more in the breach with the GOP in power.
Phyllis’ recipe won’t work simply because of the two party system both of who rely on having lots of money. Separate the parties from their well heeled sources of money and one may have a chance. I think we should follow those fellows in Vermont who want to secede.
I disagree with the implication in the article that one must be a saint in order to accept that people of a different gender or color are their equals.
Linda, I agree with your post, but would add that as a non-religious person, in addition to reason, compassion also guides me in embracing my values.
Non-religious people also have values. If there is anything we have learned from the past seven years, it is that. So, let’s look at the concept of democracy as an expression of human values–the value of being free to pursue one’s own life direction, economically, philosophically, physically; the value of being part of a global community that protects and advances human potential; the value of working together toward more enlightened institutions that actually live up to the ideals espoused at the beginning.
These are the values that form our “religion,” and it is a humanistic one, but no less a “religion” for that–we do believe in our values with deep faith that we can and should make things better. So, let’s claim those beliefs and not let the hypocritical “religious right” or the evidence of centuries of wrongs committed in the name of religion keep us from recognizing and espousing our own values. We live in an age of proselytizing, so let’s do our own, articulating our values to anyone who will listen, because we may soon discover how many of us actually, deep down, still believe that America can be “saved,” turned from this absurd direction and pushed back to a more hopeful and enlightened path. If we all speak up at once–well, I guess that’s what synergy is all about.
Certainly, we’re not going to let this dream of America go just because some idiots have grabbed power and manipulated us down a destructive path. I think we’ve made the point that they’re idiots and, instead of being like Charley Brown, screaming that “we’re doomed,” let’s permeate the media with our own values and our own voices calling for positive change. Hey, it worked for Thomas Paine!
www.changetheschools.com
Thank you, pkokinos. Beautifully stated!
I’m following this conversation with interest since I’m concerned with the essay’s explicit focus on ‘traditional religious values’ as the guiding force for our democracy. I’m also concerned, as I’ve previously stated, with how religiosity appears to be a call to arms for the grassroots.
Of particular concern is this statement:
“When religious people are involved in guiding the values that shape public life through participating in the political process, the separation of church and state are not violated.”
I’m not quite certain I understand the full meaning here. I’m much more concerned with the participation of devotees to the Democratic values put forth in our Constitution than I am with the involvement of those driven by the tenets of their particular religion. This is afterall a secular nation.
It is true that many of the principles inherent to the democratic values put forth in our Constitution are also present in the “ideals” of some traditional religions. However, where our democracy is meant to be fully inclusive, religion with its rigid requirements for adherence, is exclusive. It is for this reason that our Constitution provides principles for a secular democracy that transcends religious belief to promote full citizen involvement.
My hope is that the promise of our democracy is fulfilled by the combined efforts of a mosaic of those who believe FIRST AND FOREMOST in the free, equal and democratic system outlined by our Constitution, which in application may not always align with the tenets of more dogmatic religions.
Thank you all for your excellent comments. This is my first time submitting an article to Common Dreams, and my first time speaking out publicly on the intertwined subjects of spirituality/religion, politics and democracy. I’m a Unitarian Universalist and deeply involved in the Network of Spiritual Progressives - Minnesota, both of which inform my thinking and influence the words used to express my thoughts. We don’t seem to have a common language to express the metaphysical/intellectual source of shared values in a liberal/progressive worldview so I doubt there is a way to say this that isn’t open to question. And I absolutely agree that people don’t have to be religious to live from exemplary values. A short essay - at least by me - cannot begin to explore the depths of this rich, important topic. My intent is to contribute to a dialogue about the values that form the promise of America and urge thoughtful action to make that promise a reality.
Regarding the website, I self-publish cards, a book and a calendar with quotations trying to get progressive ideas into our culture and provide inspiration. By default and not intent, this is a not-for-profit venture. Oh, well. There are also many articles posted including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. ProgressiveValues.org is a work in progress.