Images Of The Spirit Of America: An Antidote To Abu Ghraib
By Peter and Helen Evans (05/25/04)
People have had a hard time explaining the Spirit of America. To call it "nationalism" misses the mark. Although many Americans were born in the United States of America, simple "loyalty to one's birthplace" isn't the characteristic which defines Americans, certainly not those who chose to come here from other nations. "Patriotism" comes closer to it; that being "fidelity to the legacy of our fore-fathers," especially if we think of the Founding Fathers of America. What is that legacy? To what do we pledge our allegiance?
We pledge allegiance to a symbol (the flag) and the abstract concept (the Republic) for which it stands. Someone may say, "Oh, you mean the 'state'." Well, yes and no. The American Republic is a special kind of state, unlike a socialist state or a monarchy. In a monarchy, the monarch (king or queen) is the sole sovereign, "the Boss" as it were, and the people are, in fact, the property of the monarch. As such, they have few, if any, rights and those could at any time be arbitrarily overturned by the monarch. In a socialist state, "the State" itself (the bureaucracy) is the sovereign. The people are dependents of the State, and whatever rights they may have are granted to them by the State, and just as likely to be taken away again.
But the American Republic is uniquely different. Here, each individual citizen is sovereign, with rights given, not by the state, but by God. (If you resist the traditional of God, consider that our brilliant Founding Fathers recognized the "self-evident truth" that every human being has "natural-born" rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.") Here in America, the state derives its legitimacy from the consent of the people, not the other way around. This is the legacy bequeathed to us by our fore-fathers. To be an American means to believe in certain ideals and principles, set forth in our founding documents. Paradoxically, we are bound together by our 'individualism', a word Alexis de Toqueville had to invent to describe what he found when he visited America almost 200 years ago. We are bound together by the Spirit of America.
Here are some examples of the Spirit of America.
-- At a party, we met a Danish-born woman who had recently become an American citizen. Someone said that she must come to the next party, and jokingly added, "That's an order!" She whipped around and announced firmly, "I don't take orders from anyone. That's why I'm here." We smiled. That's the confident Spirit of America speaking.
-- The pictures of the coffins draped in American flags bearing fallen soldiers home from Iraq. We didn't find these images offensive at all. Rather, they reminded us of the feeling we have when we visit Arlington National Cemetery. We didn't know what we would feel the first time we went there, but we were pleasantly surprised that it is such a peaceful and beautiful place, a place of honor and solemnity. We've met people who take their children there to find the same reverence and peace. To sacrifice for what we believe is also part of the Spirit of America. Sometimes that Spirit speaks in hushed, sacred tones about the ultimate sacrifice.
-- In our capacity as real estate agents, we gave a presentation to a group of first-time home buyers. They were people who came here from Sierra Leone. From that group, we heard speaker after speaker tell us of the benefits of freedom. We heard them tell their fellow immigrants that freedom must be used carefully; be it putting aside $30 a month for their kids' college education instead of spending it on cable TV, or becoming homeowners rather than renters. Another outlined the steps to financial independence: 1.) be a worker: i.e. get a good job and start saving. 2.) be an owner: i.e. start a business with those savings so that you're not tied to a 9 to 5 job 3.) be an investor: i.e. invest the profits from the business so you can multiply your sources of income. That's the Spirit of America speaking about making a better life for yourself through your own efforts.
-- We recently met the owner of a vineyard, near Middleburg, Virginia, who is dedicated to bringing back a true American grape that was growing in this soil before the Pilgrims came. This grape, called Norton, after its discoverer, produces a wine that won awards as far back as the 1800's . Does this seem out of line with the article? It's not. To drink this wine is like drinking history; it's like tasting freedom. The deep red wine is bold, rich and complex . The vine itself is difficult to propagate, but once it takes root, it's hardy and long living. Now, isn't that like freedom?
What we now call the Spirit of America has always been within mankind and it can work through each of us. President Bush said that Freedom is not America's gift to the world, but rather God's gift to humanity. This "place" called America is really our hearts and minds. It's older than the nation we call America, which was designed to allow it to flourish. It's the Spirit that motivates us to rise to the challenges of life and become our best. Just like a vine, we must nurture it with loving care before it will give us its fruit. Then, it's up to each of us whether we make wine or vinegar.
(NOTE: We would especially like to thank Jennifer McCloud for introducing us to Norton, the "true American grape," and for generously giving us a guided tour of her labor of love, Chrysalis Vineyards.)
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