I was extremely disappointed today to see a video of Jeff Daniels talk about how there is nothing great about America. I particularly enjoyed his depiction of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain in Gettysburg, but apparently he's just a very good actor. He's about as far from Chamberlain as you can go.
People like to look for the bad in things. Mostly, I think it makes them feel better about themselves. Sometimes I think they use it to distract us from looking for the bad in the things they love or in themselves. In the end, I think they do it because it's easier than looking for the good.
My mission was a very difficult period of my life. I remember once, when my father asked me to sit down and think about the good in my companions, I struggled because I found myself splitting hairs or able only to focus on their weaknesses. It took a greater number of years than I like to admit to see them as they really were.
People choose to see the bad in America. Funny enough, these same people want to be in charge of a nation they allegedly hate. As for myself, I don't affiliate with things that I consider to be counter to my values and beliefs. I eschew them. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to lead a nation they considered evil.. Historically, these kind of people would CONQUER those nations instead.
Although there are bad things about America, there are many wonderful things too. People like Mr. Daniels do not see because they do not wish to see. They, like most people, pass on the data that supports their own point of view and ignore the rest, all the while claiming to be 'objective'. Although they will probably fly flags, shoot off fireworks, and barbecue with neighbors this Wednesday, they do not support America. How can you support something you hate?
This is one of the least racist, least nationalistic, least isolationist nations on the planet. When I was living in Austria as a missionary, I remember one night sitting around after dinner when the topic came to foreigners. Those gathered began to complain about how much they hated foreigners and wished they would go home. Suddenly, I pointed out that I was a foreigner, and the room fell silent. No matter my skin color, my Swiss ancestry, and my mastery of German, I was NEVER going to actually be an Austrian. I was always going to be a foreigner. The same cannot be said in America. We don’t care where you are from or who your father is if you’re contributing to the advancement of our society.
America if left to its own devices will feed the hungry, administer to the sick, free the captive, and right any wrong. They are the world’s most dependably compassionate people. People mock their fascination with the “happily ever after” concept, and yet they of all people hope, even against hope, for a better world, for peace in the Middle East, and for the expanse of virtue to other shores. In America it matters what one is, not who one’s father was, as is reflected in this quote: “Whether you're made of old parts, new parts or spare parts, you can shine no matter what you're made of .”
By looking at people full of hope and compassion, people learn about what it really takes to change the world. Nobody learns how to be alive by studying death or by asking those whose life hangs in the balance. More to the heart of the matter, people truly possessive of hope and compassion, of the virtues of humanity, constitute the only muster by which the world and its denizens hope to be elevated. “You cannot turn to a corrupted man to understand things of the spirit. He knows nothing of the ethics being discussed” .
They like to talk about Europe as the light of the world. Even Europeans have decided in this generation to see only the bad about America. Yet it is Europe and not America where most of the evils attributed to America arose and in America where they were first laid to rest. Europe went through the Dark Ages. America arose after the enlightnement, the Enlightened Experiment as one pilgrim wrote. It's populated with men, and everything built by men will have flaws. It was however built by some of the best of men who embued it with their virtues and inspired it with their rhetoric and built it with their hands and hearts and fortunes. That is what we celebrate. We choose to see the good, celebrate it, endorse it, and follow it. You tend after all to end up heading toward that which keeps your focus, and as soon as America's detractors realize that, they'll actually be able to help us head towards greatness rather than always glancing back as Lot's wife on the evils we left behind. America is a land of promise to all those who have God to be their King.
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