IDEA OF AMERICA
OUR VALUES, OUR LEGACY, OUR FUTURE

Freedom, Liberty, Equality
So new citizens are told.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
So our Declaration of Independence states.
Equal Justice Under Law
So the motto etched on the Supreme Court edifice proclaims.

America is unique. We are an exception to other world powers. Not because of our physical size or dominance in military, economic or political power. We are unique in being a republic founded on values and ideals.

“The premise of the Idea of America is that Americans embrace values that are often in tension. These tensions--law vs. ethics, freedom vs. equality, unity vs. diversity, common wealth vs. private wealth--are at the heart of a great debate that began with the Founders and continues today.”

OUR LEGACY

We herald the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights as our founding documents – the intellectual backbone and the framework of the Nation. The Declaration is the statement of idealism. The Constitution describes the practical operations of a democratically elected representative government. The Bill of Rights enumerates the important individual liberties that our American government (National, State, and Local) are pledged to protect. But there is much left unsaid in these documents. While they were intended to embody the spirit, principles, and values of our Nation, the reality is that they confront citizens with ongoing struggles. How will the citizens of the Nation create a society that is inclusive, non-racist, and non-sexist given our legacy of past social injustices?

OUR FUTURE

Education: The Great Equalizer. Thomas Jefferson gave voice to the role of education in our nation in proposing locally based education (local school districts), expanding education more broadly (not simply to those from privilege and wealth), and extolling the goal of education to advance the freedom and happiness of all. Education is critical to “the betterment not only of Virginians, or of Americans, but of all mankind.”
Unfortunately, education was not made available to all on an equal basis and efforts to make it so (Brown v Board of Education) have not succeeded. Our future demands better.

Our Economy: A Legacy of Growth and Opportunity. A free-enterprise economy was embraced as the engine to drive our economy to greater growth and expanding opportunities for all. Unfortunately, this engine also produced inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth and failed to open the doors for economic opportunity for many (the marginalized and people of color and women in particular). More recently, our economy has been hit with globalization (offshoring of jobs) and technology (in the form of artificial intelligence) that is threatening the future of jobs and wages. The disruptions to our economy are unprecedented. Our future faces great economic challenges.

We the People: A Nation of Immigrants. We like to think of our nation as built on the backs of immigrants coming of their own free will to a land of greater opportunity. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” so the Statue of Liberty proclaims. Not so. Many of those huddled masses came in chains and were sold into slavery. Others of those huddled masses were displaced, slaughtered, incarcerated on reservations. And others were not welcomed with open arms but faced outright discrimination and life in slums and ghettos. Now we face untold millions fleeing for their lives streaming across our southern border. What is our future regarding immigration policy?

Social Justice for All. Our Greatest Challenge. Social Justice is a politically loaded term. Those on the far left extoll far greater equality in the distribution of income and wealth as the goal of social justice. Those on the far right raise the cry of alarm over loss of individual freedoms and threat of government bureaucracy. Just what do we mean by social justice? Why is it important for the future of our nation?
These are the issues and challenges we must address in the Idea of America and our efforts to preserve our Democracy.