AMERICA

 

                                                                        AMERICA

America was founded on key principles that included free speech, democracy, and the right to seek opportunities in education, work and to live in peace practicing the religion of their choice. In not wanting to be technical or behave as if a constitutional attorney, these are some of the principles that guided Americans.

Yet America is and has always been a flawed country. At first, the people were not fully trusted therefore it was congress that voted on who should be elected to president and vice president. Woman did not have the right to vote and slavery was a component of life. The point is that building this nation incorporated many compromises. The Bill of Rights, The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, were all marvelous hope-filled documents that represented the eventual liberties and freedoms that all Americans should be entitled to but at the time and during its entire life as a country these principles were compromised for the benefit, at times, for the overall good and at times, due to a lack in courage.

Accommodating people of every interest, religion, belief, race, hope, culture is an undertaking that naturally these challenges force compromises and flaws and errors to take place. Great men and women have made inroads towards righting wrongs and putting America on track towards living the hopes and dreams, the principles by which it was first founded. Washington and Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman and Shirley Chisholm all broke barriers among thousands of others to put America on track towards reaching its ultimate goals. Wars, riots, racial confrontation, the sexual revolution and so many countless of movements, times of turbulence and challenges have confronted American evolution. From the founding of the country to American Western destiny to making sense of the varied values and lifestyles that make up the country, fully defining American identity has never been easy.

But along this trail of evolution America has undergone many serious extremist groups that have often resisted the true principles of America, which were anointed upon us in our great documents listed above. Society must have structure to nurture, guide and create flexibility so that whatever America is can be contained within its bosom. There are those that resisted but indeed had history, culture and values that validated their efforts such as native American Indians, black America in demanding their rights as equals and they can be understood, respected and included in what America should be. But there have been those opposed to equality based on the color of one’s skin or gender or sexual persuasion. There is no room for the KKK or any extremist group that attempts to invalidate institutions, values, laws and behavior that uses lawlessness as a means to an end. Any look back that realizes the rancher was wrong to evade the law because they believed they were right even if the law proved they were wrong and then takes the law into their own hands cannot argue righteousness because there is none. And any individual that is not supported fairly and equally under the rights of American law is not served justice and that too cannot be tolerated.

So, yes, America is a flawed country and those that stand on their egos and state that America is the greatest nation on earth and those that argue America is evil are both wrong. America is a country and has always been in a state of searching for its identity and continuously been correcting, revising, understanding its place on the track of evolution. In every age, every generation, at every turn America, like many countries, has taken steps forward and at times it has taken steps backward as that is the natural order of life both for an individual as well as a country. We learn, adapt, adjust, argue, error and do good things as we evolve.

We have been led by good and bad people. Mistakes and compromises have been made and there have been many wonderful things that have been achieved as well. We can be proud as a nation but never with ego or in blindness that we have not made many mistakes because the truth is, we have.

I would challenge any good Christian, any person of religious moral standing, of values to confront their own understanding of what those principles mean and whether you live by them or simply voice them without meaning.

Donald Trump is a deeply challenged individual with no moral compass, no empathy or understanding of law. For those that cannot see that lies, immoral behavior, not seeing how one’s actions can have consequences, to behave as if lies, manipulation and threats are not wrong, to act as if people do not matter and that only the thirst and grasp for power is all that matters regardless of the behavior that one takes to attain said power, then there is a mirror one needs to look into to realize who you are as a person.

If you justify that to attain one specific goal or interest is worth supporting someone who has literally no morality whatsoever then the reflection on you needs to be confronted because that is also wrong. There must be a line of principles and morals that cannot be crossed in order to be a nation where respect and trust and valued principles bind us together or there is no need to be unified as a nation.

In the last four years of the Trump presidency many things have taken place. An individual may be pleased with a particular policy that benefits them or meets their ideals, but the question is, at what cost. Do I want more money in my pocket-yes. Do I want it at the cost of a behavior full of lies, full of ego, full of tearing down democratic principles, full of destroying institutions, full of creating a platform for hate and anger, division and manipulation, the answer is, no. And if you think that Mr. Trump is a good man then what are you using to define good? If you think that Mr. Trump is a man of religious beliefs, of empathy and caring then exactly what can you point to that would support and justify that? A person that asks for your money to fight a legal battle that has been rejected by the courts over 60 times, who has been told by all of his security agencies, Secretaries of State that the 2020 presidential election was fair and that fraud was not committed and that nothing that had taken place would be able to overturn the results and has then received over 250 million dollars from the citizenry is not a man of ideals and values, that is a man scamming the public and how you do not see that, leaves many in disbelief.

Mr. Trump is responsible for creating a nation divided and for using arguments of extremism, terror, hatred and racism to sow such anger that has led to extremist behavior and he needs to be held accountable otherwise why have a nation at all? If no man is above the law, then he needs to be held accountable. And if not, then America is once again taking steps backwards, back into the abyss of trying to discover who and what we are as a people, a culture and if we are or are not a nation of laws.

Steven Pelcman