Acts of greatness
The conceit that America must be made great again, that we have lost our greatness, is slander.
America is great because of Bree Newsome hauling down that obscene ensign in Charleston, S.C.; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) hurling back “nasty women” to a demagogue; and Sally Yates refusing to enforce an unconstitutional order when she was briefly the acting U.S. attorney general.
In my time, this country’s greatness has been shown in the civil rights marchers, women’s liberation, farmworkers on strike and the LGBTQ movement. In the long arc of America’s history, it shows in those who have risen above the narrow confines of their own individualistic concerns, their fugitive acts of compassion, making America the land that never has been but must be, reconciling the theory and practice of America. Joseph Gius Los Angeles
On July 4, we both celebrate and honor what 56 patriots did when they, with a firm reliance on divine providence, mutually pledged to one another their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. In so doing they established a nation founded not by power or birth, but by a remarkable idea.
Among them were men of education and property as well as simple tradesmen. They lived up to that pledge. Many lost all save their patriotism.
That idea was simple and profound: that all men are created equal and that our rights come from our creator. Rights are eternal and cannot be taken from us by the state. Government was not about what it must do for us but rather what it may not do to us, so that we are free to live our lives in liberty, to pursue happiness and prosperity without interference.
God bless America. Stephen Smith
Eagle Rock