On Being American

Being American is really important to me, and I am proud to be an American. My pride has nothing to do with who the President is or the fact that the United States is one of the longest running liberal democracies in history. It is not about our military strength or the Bill of Rights. Don't get me wrong, I think these things are important.

What I think is most incredible about our country is its ability to bring radically different people together and create something that is new, better and excellent. This is partly about immigration - but not in the political context. What I mean is that at our schools, community groups, etc. - there is an expected equality and a responsibility to take ownership and do. While the United States has sometimes been ridiculed by the press (both at home and abroad) for its inability to do something or another - the general sentiment in the US has never been nasty towards itself during my lifetime. I am starting to see a shift from being mildly annoyed with various aspects of American life - to a legitimate criticism of American life. And frankly, I don't like it.

I don't like it - at least in part for no other reason than my own pride in being an American. But I worry about this country and its apparent arrogance that we are smarter or harder working or more innovative and that's enough to be the best at whatever it is that we want to be the best at - Olympic sports, new venture creation, etc. What worries me more is that generally there appears to be a malaise about why and how we are slipping.

Yesterday on Sports Talk Radio of all things, they were discussing how Americans are getting soft. I don't know if this is true or not - but what they were really talking about was discipline, responsibility and work ethic. My dad and I had a similar conversation a week ago - and I have been reflecting on this for some time in some way or another.

What I think it means to be an American is the Jesuit ideal of - magis - or "being excellent in all things." I don't mean that in an arrogant way - meaning that we are excellent in all things - but in the process of excellence. Thus, the key word is being and in order "to be" one must strive and suffer and accomplish. Anymore, we have lost the hard parts of being and simply assumed that we already are there. So we have a generation of people - the Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y - that simply collectively assume that we have reached the mountain top. This is partly true; we have reached a mountain top. But it is not Everest - its an Appalachian.

We have lost focus as a country - our leaders, our politicians (they are not the same thing most of the time), our people - at the being part of excellence. Being American is quintessentially that quest that can only be reached by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and doing something better and greater than any thought possible.

I like the history of individuals pulling themselves up by their bootstraps - and knowing that I too can start my own thing and be wildly successful on the merits (not on who I was born to be). This, I think, is uniquely American and what we should focus on creating when we build institutions and communities.

Where are these things in American society:
- Education: I don't have the perspective necessary to say that our education system has never looked so bleak - but between sky-rocketing cost (at all levels) and lower achievement and expectations. Its hard to say that this is creating an environment that helps realize the uniquely American quest for excellence.

- Social Programs: Whether its healthcare, social security, public education, or any number of other things, its shocking to me how little common purpose people are willing to agree upon. In any of the debates, the discussion and policy is so polarized and polarizing that debate on substantive issues is simply impossible. So, for example, everyone is willing to say: "I want better healthcare" or "I want less crime" - but nobody or very few are willing to say. And here is what that means from a metrics perspective, here is what that means from an achievement perspective, and here is what that means from an accountability perspective.

- Immigration: When in our history have immigrants (regardless of race or creed) been welcomed less? Historically, there are horror stories about individual classes of people - Chinese in the 1860s and 1870s, Catholic Irish or Italians in the 1880s...Vietnamese in the 1970s, Mexican in the 1990s and 2000s, etc. But, right now, I think that there is a general sentiment against any immigration and our laws have not evolved to the society that we have. Thus, not only is sentiment poor - but our legal framework does not make any sense. This is not a political indictment of one party over the other - it is simply a note regarding the lack of clarity and perspective that my country appears to be lacking.

Saying this, I can still say that I am proud to be an American. We have problems...to be excellent you don't get to do simple things. To be excellent you must confront difficult, seemingly impossible challenges. I am proud for my opportunity to serve and do great things. Only in American would I be able to help solve these problems, rather than simply complain about the system or the status quo. Let's not lose that to rhetoric or polarizing politicians. Instead, let's start solving problems. Let's not leave them for the next generation; they're will be plenty of new and challenging problems for them. But we must pull ourselves up by our bootstraps in the quest for excellence.