American Values

American Values

 

It seems to me at this time of the year when Americans elect themselves a new President that there is a void of national unity. There is a division that separates the Democrats and the Republicans which impacts their view on being Americans.

To me, the problem lies in not in being conservative or liberal, but in how these two parties see America and Americans moving forward. One of these catch phrases I keep hearing is “American Values”, and it is this phrase that I would like to address today.

It occurs to me that the Founding Fathers created the nation of the United States of America out of a systematic belief or value, that all men were created equal. Of course, they wanted freedom for themselves, yet would not grant the freedom of slaves, and many of the Founding Fathers were in fact slave owners. So, in the view from 2012, the values of 1776 were quite ridiculous.

Almost 100 years later, there had to be a civil war to provide the constitutional right to ALL Americans regardless of colour or religious beliefs that freedom was a right, and not a privilege. More men died in the civil war than all subsequent wars in American history including WW1, WW1, the Korean and Vietnam wars, to provide that unity that America was not a slave, and non-slave nation. In fact, in all the wars that the United States has fought in, they declare it in the cause of freedom, and the American way of life. Yet at home, on their own soil, many of their own citizens and elected officials are always fighting for basic human rights that wealthy white people have enjoyed for centuries.

The idea of capitalism really dictates the view of the individual outworking the next person to get as far as they can in society in any manner they can get it. Creating a society of individuals will get the elite higher, and keep the lower masses at bay. This has been the reoccurring theme in the United States since its birth as a nation. The rich don’t want to share their wealth and means so that the betterment of the society they surround themselves in gets any further. In fact, it only serves them to keep the common man down, which further divides the nation into classes.

This has been the historic view of the United States of America.

The upper class is not interested in empowering the lower classes for fear of losing their place in society. They are only interested in being wealthy Americans, and not having to share that their nation will be a better place to live for the average person. It is this greed and unwillingness to share for the common good that has created great wealth in America, and why it has also divided itself in political parties.

If the average American was committed to the United States to being a great place for everyone to live, there would be no opposing the National Health Care system that makes the U.S. the only superpower in the world that cannot offer basic health care to everyone of its citizens equally. It would make sure that everyone has the right to education at every level because it just makes sense that an educated nation creates more prosperity than a nation of ignorance. It would also make sense that every single person had the right to the pursuit of happiness regardless of religious belief, sexual orientation, colour, creed or any other bias that we would use to dominate others for living their lives the way they choose to live it.

Freedom is choice. For some reason, it seems to me that the people who cry out for a “return to family and American values” forget that these are the values that discriminated against millions of their own citizens inside of a constitutional promise of the same freedom they enjoyed. These people don’t want freedom, they want to dominate anyone who doesn’t see life their way, and dominate them to live it the way they think it should be lived in their own set of values.

This is the exact reason why the Nation of America was formed, so that its people could enjoy religious freedoms away from a society that judged them not on what they did, but who their parents were in that society. Now, almost 250 years later from the Declaration of that Independence, the principle is still being fought against inside of what was created for ALL men and women. The nation was created for RELIGIOUS freedom, not which kind of Christianity you are.

It is my view that a party of people looking back to the way things were in the past, will always try to keep the nation from looking forward towards the future. Those committed to the future of what it can do proactively to help EVERY single person live a wonderful life with every opportunity to make it great, deserves my vote.

By building a nation of people together, and not a belief system divided against each other, is the way that creates a more powerful, balanced and productive society. Countries with only upper and lower class systems are not committed to being great. Instead, they are only interested in keeping that population impoverished so that it never has the chance every human deserves by the belief system that is Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

So when America goes to the polls on Tuesday, we will see what it is that their citizens are committed to; The betterment of the citizen, or the betterment of their society of citizens.