‘Forged by fire’

There’s no better time to be an American.

The president of theUnited States is under investigation for possible obstruction of justice, andmembers of his campaign are being scrutinized for their connections to a hostile foreign power.

Less than half of people surveyed by Pewin 37 countries have a positive view of theU.S., a drop fromnearly two-thirds in recent years.

Aman recently targeted Republican congressmen for assassination— not long after voters inMontana elected aman to Congress a day after he body-slammed a reporter.

Videos of police-involved shootings routinely go viral, political polarization has become a legitimate national security concern and themortality rate among some groups has increased in recent years.

None of that should sully planned Fourth of July celebrations; it should enhance them. The struggleswe are facing means there’s never been a better time to be an American.

This countrywas forged by fire. It didn’t spring up whole cloth out of comfort, but was conceived because of discomfort. An urgency to fight injustice and correct wrongswas the impetus for a new kind of democracy. The country’s birthdaywouldn’t mean as much, wouldn’t resonate for so many, if it had happened any otherway. Imperfect men and women— who owned and beat and raped slaves— revolted against other imperfect men andwomen an ocean away. Itwas bloody and relentless and cruel. Itwas full of contradiction and grounded in the untenable, that all “men” were created equal and endowed with inalienable rights, but only if those men had the proper skin tone or a large enough bank account orwere— men.

Itwas not easy to come through that, and another greatwar about eight decades later, stronger and with a greater appreciation for freedom. Butwe did.

Greatness is revealed in times of strife, because greatness is the only thing that can successfully pull us, kicking and screaming every step of theway, to the other side and into a better day.

That’s why there has never been a better time to be American, because greatness will have to reveal itself again to pull us through, again. It has always shownup when it’s been needed most.

Greatness must showup in the arts and entertainment and journalism and politics and education and medicine and science and public policy and economics and business and just about everything else.

And it will.

TheUnited States hasn’t been great because it has been perfect, but because it always searches for new, innovativeways to identify and address its imperfections, sometimes through corporations seeking more profit and influence, sometimes through government entities trying to be worthy of the power they’ve been granted, but frequently through individual citizens sick and tired of being sick and tired. That relentless pursuit has long been the country’sNo. 1 calling card, convincing talent from throughout theworld to study and live here.

Greatness is within reach of more people than ever because of the global technological advances theU.S. made possible. That should give us confidence even when headlines depress.

There has never been a better time to be American, because greatness will have to reveal itself again to pull us through, again.

This editorial first appeared in The Charlotte Observer.