It might be anecdotal but I suspect that my experience represents the tip of a very troubling American iceberg. On the surface I encounter many Americans who don't embrace the concept of an American culture and values that transcend the many ethnicities, races, religions and nationalities that fill the American landscape. People revel in their ethnic, racial, religious and hereditary roots. But far too often they overlook the role that American values play in their good fortune. They see themselves as hyphenated Americans, placing their race, religion or ethnicity in front of "American" as they describe themselves. They are Jewish-Americans, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans etc. American is secondary. The ordering of words is not coincidental. Our schools and most of the mainstream media reinforce this ordering as propagandized in diversity training courses.
But the glue that has held American together has been the concept of a quintessential American character. We are not merely the sum of our parts. We are not just a bunch of different cultures coexisting within common boarders. "Land of the free and home of the brave" are not merely lyrics. These lyrics describe a particular nation. The Judeo-Christian principals that informed our founders and provided the bedrock for our Constitution can be found nowhere else on this planet. A secular government established acknowledging a divine source of human rights and responsibilities is both precious and fragile. It is precious because of all the good it engenders. It is fragile because it requires that most of us understand our blessings and pass these concepts along to the next generation. This is where I detect a problem. When the emphasis is on our diversity we tend to under-appreciate what binds us.
This came into clear focus the other night in a class I am taking called "Hot Topics" at a local synagogue. The topic on this particular evening was immigration. What disturbed me was the "mosaic" perspective of America that was expressed by a number of those in attendance. They see an America that turns our national motto, "e pluribus unum" upside down. The very essence of the core principal "out of many one" that has held America together is not embraced by these successful well educated Americans. Indeed the controlling word is "one" not "many". The existence of our republic as a viable force for good turns on this profound difference. The “one” must transcend the “many” or our experiment will fail.
My suspicions were further reinforced as I left class. A South African immigrant asked me, “what is this American culture?” For him the idea of a unique American culture seemed to be a mystery.
Far too many of us see America as the diversity educators have presented it over that last 3 or 4 decades. The melting pot I grew to love has been replaced for many by the concept of a mosaic. They teach that America is nothing more than the coming together of many different equally good cultures that share geographic proximity. They swim in the warmth of their rights and good feelings but are oblivious to the source of those rights, the history of those rights, the responsibilities required to preserve those rights and the tools required to pass our good fortune to the next generation. If this iceberg continues to grow, at some point we will reach a place where there will exist no life preserver big enough to sustain America as it was conceived. One symptom of this pending crisis is how cynical so many are about America while romanticizing other cultures.
Our strength as an American culture and nation can be sourced to a coming together around principals and values that distinguish us from and raise us above everyone else.
Most of us are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants from places and cultures all over the world. And yes America is richer and stronger because of elements of these cultures that have been transplanted in America. But and this is a very big “but”, Americans share an entirely unique and exceptional set of values and traditions that have created the most generous, prosperous, free and tolerant nation in human history. Whatever admirable qualities other cultures and nationalities have brought to America, the fact is that one nation stands out among all others.
Our Constitution is not merely a legal document. It is a reflection of Judeo-Christian values that sources our rights to a creator. Unless the thread of that unique oneness is appreciated by most Americans we will be doomed to lose our greatness. Until the 1960’s this essential cornerstone of American values was widely understood by most Americans. It was taught in the schools and to new immigrants. It was this concept that created the national conscience that ended slavery, defeated fascism and then communism. It is not by coincidence that America is the worlds magnet. A secular government established on Judeo-Christian principals exists nowhere else in the world. We are or have been people coming from everywhere who come together around American values. Some go to Church, some to Temple, some to the Mosque and some go to no religious institution. But traditionally we have understood the essence of our national roots and the culture that has emerged. America has a collective conscience like no other nation. Americans liberated Europe, saved South Korea, suffered a half million casualties in a civil war to end slavery, freed millions of Moslems and we are the world’s leader in private charitable work. We may not be as schooled in art as the French or music as the Germans but we have know the meaning of liberty and have in the past known how to preserve it.
If we fall into the trap of becoming a country of hyphenated Americans we travel down the road to the dilution of the greatest force for good in world history. I am not a Jewish-American. I am an American of the Jewish faith. I practice my Judaism at home and in the synagogue. I share it with those who have interest. I embrace Jewish values knowing that at their core they are also American values. But I also wake up every day knowing, as Larry Elder has said many times, to paraphrase “Being born or immigrating to America is like winning the lottery.”
