The Meaning of America

February 13, 2012

Friends

Ignorance breeds Ignorance. Someday , maybe, this country will leave racism behind. Sadly it’s still part of our society.

I favor teaching the truth about historical events. We should love our country for all our many great achievements. We should love our country for the good it has done.

We should also love our country enough to be honest with ourselves and our children about our country’s past mistakes & misdeeds. We cannot learn from the past unless we know it.

Our country is so polarized. It is hard to get around the polarization because we all believe so strongly in what we believe.

Rather than dividing us, we need to bridge the gap and look for common ground. I am a lifelong liberal and I have friends who are lifelong conservatives. My views are as strongly held as are theirs. We need to speak with mutual respect. We need to have rational dialogue. We need to not have to win every argument and we need to listen to one another. We need to be willing to learn and we need to be willing to admit that we can be wrong. We need to be willing to actually change our mind, but not on fundamental principles like the need for honesty and the  need for Liberty and justice for all

No matter what our politics, all Americans hate tyranny. We need look no further than the Declaration of Independence & the Bill of Rights to find our immutable shared values. Perhaps that is why promoting Readings of the Declation is so important to me. It reminds us of all that Unites us. Despite all the ugliness of the last few years, I still believe that we are United by far more than that which may divide us.

I remind my liberal and conservative friends that the Greatest Generation was made up of men & women from all backgrounds across the political spectrum.

The late “Racehorse” Haynes saved two fellow Marines on Iwo Jima. He didn’t ask their politics before saving them. Part of loving this country is learning, perhaps for the first time, to love & trust one another.

Sorry for preaching.

Robb Fickman

Houston, Texas