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Shaping
Citizens, Saving Souls
By Suzanne Fields
7/8/2011
A
neighbor of mine, age 15, left the
picnic on the Fourth of July expecting to set off fireworks in the
family. He
had a declaration of his own: “I’m off to play one of those violent
video games
the Supreme Court says are protected by my First Amendment rights.”
He
got a groan or two (probably less
than he had hoped for), but one of the grown-ups expressed the hopeful
view:
“Well, at least the Bill of Rights has got his attention.” Between the
parades
and the pyrotechnics that light up night skies above purple mountain
majesties
and fruited plain, we usually pay scant attention to the truths and
values that
bind us together as a nation.
When
I wrote of the lack of learning
of the nation’s history by most of our schoolchildren, someone sent me
a book
titled, “What So Proudly We Hail: the American Soul in Story, Speech
and Song.”
It contains documents that were once our common heritage but have been
all but
lost along the way.
Amy
and Leon Kass and Diane Schaub
have high hopes for their book: “Its ultimate goal, stated without
apology, is
to produce better patriots and better citizens, men and women knowingly
and
thoughtfully attached to our country, devoted to its ideals and eager
to live
an active civic life.” They worry about the effect of cynicism and
apathy of
Americans watching politicians strut across the public stage. Many of
us no
longer thrive in the robust civic engagement flowing from a sense of
who we are
and how we got that way.
We’ve
always had to endure endless
backbiting and mudslinging of seekers of office, but our sense of the
American
character, our national identity, was once secure in the schools,
expressed in
ways as simple as requiring one and all to memorize Lincoln’s
“Gettysburg
Address.” (Do any teachers do that anymore?)
With
the omniscient technology of the
social media, which emphasizes spontaneity, fragmentation and the flaws
of
public officials, we’re losing sight of the “specialness” of a nation
dedicated
to “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
President
Calvin Coolidge succinctly
summed up the American experience on the occasion of the nation’s
sesquicentennial in 1926: “Governments don’t make ideals, but ideals
make
governments.”
For
one short moment, immediately
following the election of President Obama, the nation enjoyed a
widespread
unifying elation, a sense of pride and purpose that a nation born with
slavery
had sent a black man to the White House to represent us all. Even the
many who
didn’t agree with his politics appreciated the remarkable milestone.
Now we’re
suffering from an economic crisis that creates new animosities to
challenge
American solidarity.
It’s
no coincidence that the tea party
movement took its name from rebellious colonists to encourage the
nation back
to unifying ideals. But life in this country is more complex than ever
before
-- the recession and a world economy weaken ties to pride of place.
Appeals to
“global humanity” are abstractions without content. Economic failures
-- as
well as individual successes -- divide and challenge the political
system in
new ways.
The
natural divisions of competing
local, county, state and national interests are increasingly riven with
conflict over economic and social issues as well as foreign policy. We
observe
this at work when Republican presidential candidates try to appeal to
different
constituencies with competing interests. This makes it harder but no
less
crucial to unify the nation.
The
editors of “What So Proudly We
Hail” have gathered documents that run the table of political
persuasions,
addressing conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, North
and
South, East and West. This might not tell readers who to put in office
next year,
but it will help them decide what they want the chosen to do.
“Developing
robust and committed
American citizens is a matter of both heart and the head,” write the
editors.
The stories they chose to tell are meant to be inspirational and
intellectual,
as they examine the profound truths as well as the flaws and
vulnerabilities
that unite us. These include works of poets and philosophers, soldiers
and
politicians that appeal to our “moral imaginations,” from Mark Twain’s
folksy
insights to Gen. George S. Patton’s “eloquent obscenities” in a speech
to his
soldiers on the eve of battle in World War II.
Here
are the soul-shaping words that
remind us that appeals to patriotism -- love of country -- can’t be
limited to
special occasions. They lead us to ask ourselves anew how a nation “so
conceived and so dedicated can long endure.”
Read
it at Townhall
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