Nation that could be

More than anything I want America to become a great nation again. But being a great nation doesn’t depend on how many millionaires or billionaires it has created, or how many famous movie stars or actors, great musicians, or outstanding athletes it produces, and certainly not on how many prisons it builds to house its drug addicts or poor people who have turned to crime to make a living wage or ambitious people who simply want to get rich without obeying its laws.

No. A great nation welcomes those who come to its borders looking for the opportunity to build a future for their children. It provides the best education possible to produce citizens who want to become creative teachers, all kinds of scientists and medical doctors and inventors, business men and industrialists, scholars and philosophers. It cares for its elderly and its poor and their health-care and housing needs. It realizes that its people who come from all nations and races and religions create an atmosphere of new possibilities for growth and opportunities for freedom of experimentation, thought, and belief. It revels in its diversity of all kinds—including politics, trusting that all manner of people can learn to live together in acceptance and respect while providing opportunity for everyone to find a place at the table.

This is the America that I believe can still exist if we, its citizens, can be open to one another and accept that the God who created each one of us gives us the ability and the possibility to make it happen!

SALLY STOCKLEY JOHNSON Little Rock