Wednesday, April 14, 2010

There is Only an American Problem

“And there's something 'bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime”
-the Indigo Girls

I’ve lived in Tennessee longer than I’ve lived anywhere else, almost longer than I’ve lived everywhere else combined. (Oh how time does fly!) This is my home, where I’ve always been made welcome. This is the place where I’ve chosen as an adult to build my life, grow my family, and contribute to my community. And I’m proud to be here. Proud of this land, these people, and the heritage that I have immersed myself in; I know that this beautiful, rich, diverse part of the country is a jewel, a treasure that we share.

I’ve never cared for the scape-goating that Southerners get in the national culture. Especially in politics. It just isn’t true that the South is a lost cause to Democrats, or that Tennessee has become a Red State because of the so-called social issues. The “God, Guns, and Gays” trope is so often quoted by the media that it becomes common wisdom. But I know so many wonderful Christians who would never agree with Glen Beck’s twisted version of the Gospels, and so many Democrats who have gun carry permits, and so many Republicans who welcome their LGBT family members, that I just don’t think we are as divided as the political power brokers would have us believe.

It’s too bad that old stereotypes and out-dated divisions get in the way of the progress that I know myself and my neighbors want to share in: prosperity, education, healthcare, security, and the promise of all that for our children’s children, not just our selves. It’s a deep-shame that what threatens our children’s inheritance of Democracy and keeps us bound in knots of dissent is political expedience. A people who are fighting among themselves are weakened and kept at the fringes, while those who are represented by ideas, compromise, and the common rule of law are empowered and made the center piece of their own governance. This is the beauty of what the founders built into our Nation’s core: We the People.

On March 16th, 1965, during a time more brutal and incendiary than today, a Southern politician moved us into a new political era, choosing to forego the political expediency of dividing the people of this great country and instead asking us all to unite in moral and Constitutional righteousness. His words will give us courage again, and much wisdom to ponder:

“There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans -- not as Democrats or Republicans. We are met here as Americans to solve that problem.

This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal," "government by consent of the governed," "give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.

Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being. To apply any other test -- to deny a man his hopes because of his color, or race, or his religion, or the place of his birth is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.”

-President Lyndon Johnson


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