I post this diary for a friend not yet willing to join the blogosphere. We all have friends in our lives that for some reason have the ability to step back and look at an issue in a different way. This author is one of those people for me. In conversations about the defense of liberalism he frequently phrases it in a way that is more convincing. So enjoy this essay "On Our National Motto."
Obama’s reference to non- believers in his inauguration speech was a welcome return to the original inclusive view of our founding fathers. Lately I have watched, while the meaning of our constitution and the nature of our history has been manipulated for partisan advantage. Reagan’s inaugural reference to a shining city on a hill to illustrate the concept of American exceptionalism is an example of this misappropriation.
If there is an exceptional nature of America, it most certainly is not encapsulated in the Winthrop’s zealous and sectarian reference to a shining city on a hill. The universally unique American concept is "We the people of the United States". There is no guarantee that we are a country uniquely blessed by god. But we do hold, in our National Archive, a sworn contract that stipulates the terms of our relationship with the government, a document without precedence in world history. All Americans inherit, as their birthright, a covenant. It is not the monotheistic covenant, first announced by Abraham at Mt. Sinai. It is our constitutional covenant most eloquently and concisely defined by another Abraham on a different slope in southern Pennsylvania.
That proposition that we are a country "of the people, by the people and for the people" has been repeatedly tested from the beginning. These challenges will continue to arise from enemies both foreign and domestic. Our current global test with fundamentalist religious zealots brings to mind Lincolns observation that,"In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time." This logic dictates that we can trust in nothing better than 50/50 odds of divine intervention on our behalf, and must worry about consequences of biblical proportions if we have misjudged his allegiance.
As I write these words, our national motto is "In God we trust". Given the odds outlined by Lincoln this appears to be a poor bet, but consider this. In 1776, our founding fathers chose E pluribus Unum, Latin for "Out of Many, One," as our national motto. They ordered the same inscribed on the seal of the United States. It remained our motto until 1956. Then, in the same burst of national xenophobic fervor that gave us Joe McCarthy and added "One nation under god" to our national pledge, politicians found a statutory loophole and switched it to "In God We Trust"; a troublesome condition that remains unresolved to this day.
Generations of Americans have willingly given their "last full measure of devotion" to guarantee the right of any American to trust in the power of their own personal relationship with their god and in the collective power of the like hearted. We can all trust that the faithful and heathens alike will continue to follow the example of Michael Strank, a Roman Catholic, Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian, and Harlon Block a Seventh Day Adventist, who added the ecumenical power of their body and spirit to those of Franklin Sousley, Jack Bradley and Rene Gagnon in raising our flag on Mount Suribachi. However, to attempt to claim to the rest of the world that we, as in "We the people" all trust in god, is false on its face.
The US Census puts our current population at over 304 million. According to the CIA World Fact book, approximately 18% of all Americans adhere to non- theistic religious beliefs. Stated more concisely our current national motto misstates the most fundamental belief of 54 million Americans. Our current motto, by its blatant falsity is an abomination to the deity in whom so much trust is truly and fervent placed. Simultaneously it undercuts the credibility of our nation as we seek to build bonds of mutual trust with our allies and reliable deterrence with our enemies.
We the people of all conditions of faith, doubt and disbelief, must join together in all contest against our great experiment. Using Lincoln’s math, this could vastly increase our odds of being at least partially blessed in the dispute since surely at least some small portion of our alliance will fall within the umbrella of his divine protection. In the event that god’s greater plan does not involve meddling in sectarian conflicts, we may still be assured that returning to our original motto sends a message to the world. In one stroke, we declare that the United States of America categorically rejects using the political strategy of bifurcation along imagined lines of difference. "E pluribus Unum" is our heritage, our current condition, our most noble aspiration, and with, luck our destiny.