America is More Than DC
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (03/14/07)
Sometimes we Americans think that our nation depends on what goes on inside the Beltway - Washington DC. At present, there are plenty of Americans who are disappointed in D.C. They are also disgusted, some ready to scream.
If that is the case, then Americans need to lift their vision from the Beltway to across the entire country. There Americans will discover what is really America. It’s not D.C. It’s grassroots, working, conscientious, law-abiding America.
In D.C. there is utter confusion in a do-nothing Congress. Democrats promised us the sky when they took over the power. Their fruits are not lush.
The Oval Office has promised us, time and again, one win after another. Instead, we continually come upon daily bloodshed and the demand for more young uniformed lives driven into hell’s Iraqi caverns — the civil war that has no end.
But America is not lost, though suffering. America is in a deserved depression; it is not imagined. It has its basis in reality, unfortunately. We have not got hold of a macabre fantasy. We have been slung, not by our own doing, into a macabre fact.
But there is hope, granted a measured hope. The hope of this nation lies in its grassroots.
There we find efficient citizens actually reporting on time to work. And they remain there, doing their jobs commendably. They not only show up, they stay. And they not only stay for the day, they show up for the next day.
America is one of the most efficient countries on the planet. Perhaps it is the most efficient on the planet. Americans are married to their watches. That cannot be said for many other societies.
Those at the grassroots pray. They attend worship. But more. They actually worship. They learn weekly from the Word how to live a civil life of love and giving. They then go forth into their communities to volunteer, share, and build.
America is the most committee-organized country in the world. And in many of those committees Americans plan programs to relieve others’ hurts, poverty and loneliness. Americans reach out in crises to lift the trauma ridden. They organize emergency efforts to rescue those ripped apart by one calamity or another.
Those at the grassroots practice positive thinking. It has become a mental way of life for the multitudes. In fact, I have made my own interpersonal experiment of trying to inflict on store clerks, librarians, doctors, and total strangers in the mall some dimension of negative thinking. I have foisted upon them complaints or down-in-the-mouth topics.
More times than not I have been met with a strong resistance. Facial language immediately informs me not to go there. I am informed by others with their redirecting the conversation into positive venues. On other occasions, those confronted by my negative verbiage simply ignore me, walk away and leave me to my funk.
Those at the grassroots have spunk. They have insight. They have a hope, tired, but still there.
In that, Americans sing lustily our nation’s anthem at sports events. See their faces. They shine. The stadiums are filled with those who gaze at our flag to come forth with a song that has resisted one defeat threat after another.
There is much skepticism regarding American’s trust in D.C. One can feel it. It’s in the air. All the more, Americans need to lift their heads, cast their eyes outside the Beltway to where our strength really lies.
I recall when Nixon left the White House in disgrace. Politicians looked at one another at the close of that dark day and concluded to the press, "The system works." What did they mean by that? They meant that though Americans had been dragged through the depressing scandal to its closure, America did not fold.
Of course America did not fold. Of course not.
When I heard those words — "The system works" — I thought to myself: Naturally it works. But it works not because of D.C., but at times in spite of D.C. Why? Because the "system" is out there where the grassroots tends the shop, no matter how disheveled D.C. knocks itself out.
So it’s true. It IS true. Fundamentally it’s at the grassroots that this country will continue into our tomorrows — strong and steady.
(Printer friendly version) Email: J. Grant Swank Jr.
