America is Great

Alexis de Tocqueville provided the first – and perhaps best – analysis of American society.  

The French philosopher and historian came to this country in 1831 and spent three years in the United States.  He timed his visit deliberately, in his words, to be here “near enough to the time when the states of America were founded to be accurately acquainted with their elements, and sufficiently removed from that period to judge some of their results.”

Asked to sum up his observations when he returned to France, de Tocqueville said, “America is great because America is good.  America will cease to be great when it is no longer good.”

In Democracy in America, published in 1835, de Tocqueville explained his conclusion saying there is an “enlightened self-interest” that governs nearly every public and private action in America. 

“They show with complacency,” he wrote, “how an enlightened regard of themselves constantly prompts them to assist each other.”

De Tocqueville was talking about the core value at the heart of America – Compassion.  It’s a value as old as civilization itself, adapted, perfected, and structured by the founding fathers to fulfill the promise of a new land.

Five centuries before Christ, Sophocles observed, “kindness begets kindness.”  Later, in Rome, Tertullian observed, “He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies.”

Our Judeo-Christian heritage emphasizes this value.  The Torah reminds us “deeds of love are worth as much as all the commandments of the law,” while Christians are bound to “love one another as I have loved you.” 

The founders of the American republic were animated by their Christian faith.  They established compassion as the central value in our social, economic, and political systems.  Without it, our society would self-destruct. 

As I watch the daily news, I can’t help wondering if we have reached the tipping point.  Is de Tocqueville’s prophecy coming true?

Compassion is the bridge between us.  It connects our lives by a thousand sympathetic threads.  Daily it seems that bridge is being destroyed.  The threads that connect us are being shredded.  We have never been so divided and alone.

I have drunk deeply from the well of goodness at the heart of America.  I have tried to contribute to it in my personal life and with programs I helped create.  It has enriched the quality of my life more than I can say, but the tide seems to be turning. 

The dogs of darkness have been unleashed.  Fear is rising and the better angels of our nature being oppressed.  Nothing less than the future of our society is at stake.

A poem stands at the entrance of the United Nations, carved on buildings we helped erect to support the alliance we helped create at a time when we were the light of the world.  The words were written by the Persian poet, Saadi Shiraz.

All the sons of Adam are part of one single body,

They are of the same essence.

When time afflicts us with pain

In one part of that body

All the other parts feel it too.

If you fail to feel the pain of others

You do not deserve the name of man.

This is compassion distilled to its essence.  It rests on the difference between saying, “I am my brother’s keeper” and saying “I am my brother.”   

That understanding is what has always made America great.  That fundamental goodness is what is now being challenged. 

In the words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”  As always, the question is how will we respond.  America will be whatever we choose to be.