Stand up and speak out on America's core founding values. We are not living in ordinary times, and it's not enough to admire them from afar.
Over the course of our nations history, we have faced inflection points times when we had to decide who we are as a country and what we stand for. Now is such a time. Beyond policy disagreements and partisan gamesmanship, there is something much more fundamental hanging in the balance. Will we remain faithful to our countrys core values?
Our founding documents set forth the values that make us who we are, or at least who we aspire to be. I say aspire to be because we havent always lived up to our founding ideals even at the time of our founding. When the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal, hundreds of thousands of African Americans were being enslaved by their fellow Americans.
Not so long ago, all across the Jim Crow South, our countrys definition was defiled by lynchings, the systematic disenfranchisement of African-American voters, and the burning of freedom riders buses. And still today, we have yet to realize fully our nations promise of equal justice.
But while we have too often fallen short, we have remained dedicated to our defining principles in our resolve to form a more perfect union. These principles have remained if not fully who we are, at least who we seek to be.
Despite our differences, we as Americans have long held a shared vision of what our country means and what values we expect our leaders to embrace. Today, our continued commitment to these unifying principles is needed more than ever.
What are the values that unite us? You dont have to look much further than the Preamble to our Constitution, just 52 words, to find them:
We the people of the United States (we are a democratic republic, not a dictatorship) in order to form a more perfect union (we are a work in progress dedicated to a noble pursuit) establish justice (we revere justice as the cornerstone of our democracy) insure domestic tranquility (we prize unity and peace, not divisiveness and discord), provide for the common defense (we should never give any foreign adversary reason to question our solidarity) promote the general welfare (we care about one another; compassion and decency matter) and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity (we have a responsibility to protect not just our own generation, but future ones as well).
Our forefathers packed a lot into that single sentence. Our Bill of Rights is similarly succinct in guaranteeing individual liberties rights that we have come to take for granted but without vigilance can erode and slip away, such as freedom of speech (our right to protest and be heard); freedom of religion (the essential separation between how one worships and the power of the state); and freedom of the press (a democratic institution essential to informing the public and holding our leaders accountable).
Our shared values include another essential principle, and thats the rule of law the promise that the law applies equally to everyone, that no person is above it, and that all are entitled to its protection. This concept of equal protection recognizes that our countrys strength comes from honoring, not weaponizing, the diversity that springs from being a nation of Native Americans and immigrants of different races, religions and nationalities.
