AMERICA IS STILL WORTH CELEBRATING

Lucky was running out of ammunition in Afghanistan. Seven hours from Kabul, on a mountaintop in Urgun, he was surrounded by the Taliban. I read his messages from my desk, in Clairemont, almost 8,000 miles away. He was worried he was going to die. He was worried about what would happen to his family if he did. He asked me to promise that I would make sure his family made it back to San Diego, no matter what happened to him.

Lucky’s messages reached me at a time when my faith in America was waning. It was 11 months ago, August 2021, that he reached out. At that time, the violent scenes of Jan. 6, 2021, were still fresh in my mind. Economic woes loomed in the future.

I was surprised how far my belief in the idea of America had fallen. As a younger man, I had stood at attention after finishing “Battle Stations” — the culminating event of Navy boot camp. I remember the pride I felt that I had become a United States sailor. The pride of being a member of the strongest military in the world. A military which defended a country worth standing up for, worth celebrating. Those days, and that belief, seemed quite distant in the summer of 2021. We were about to withdraw in defeat after 20 years of war, and a cold war seemed to be brewing right here at home, between two Americas that could no longer settle their differences peacefully. There seemed little worth celebrating. And Lucky was running out of ammunition.

Lucky Manan is a translator friend I met in San Diego at a press conference opposing then-President Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban I had convened as the local chapter director for the Truman National Security Project.

Today, things don’t look much better. We are still deeply divided as a country. The Jan. 6 hearings fill the headlines, proof of how fragile our democracy really is. Inflation pressures family budgets. Housing is scarce and unaffordable. A sovereign nation is being invaded in Europe for the first time in our lifetimes. Supreme Court decisions strip away fundamental rights from half our population. Who can be optimistic about the future of America? Who can stand up for America’s anthem? Who can believe in the idea of America?

I do. Implausibly, perhaps impossibly, 11 months after Lucky sent what he thought might be his last text, I believe.

I believe because I’ve seen America in action this last year. And what I’ve seen is an America worthy of believing in. Lucky survived and made it to America with his family. He wasn’t the only one who made it, just as I wasn’t the only one who got frantic texts last August. All over the world, people with a connection to Afghans were receiving messages asking for help. Current and former national security and development professionals refused to idly watch while Afghans suffered, and groups all over the world focused on getting “their people” out before the final U.S. forces left.

These groups were composed of a cross section of America. There were groups with veterans, current and former frontline civilians, diplomats and intelligence community officials. Some were made up of immigration lawyers and long-time federal advocates, some were made up of folks who would otherwise be lining up across from each other at political rallies, banding together with the shared ideal that we made a promise to Afghans who served alongside us and we intended to see that through.

The work itself was inspiring. The diverse array of volunteers ensured accurate information was passed at critical moments. Operations were carried out safely and under difficult conditions. But the work product was not what revived my lagging faith. It was Americans, banding together, to help those who had stood with American service members — in defense of the ideals America is supposed to represent — become Americans.

Our union is made more perfect by each and every Afghan who arrives, and Americans are made more perfect every day in the effort to help them arrive safely. The actions undertaken by these volunteers is a testament that perfecting the union is hard work. It is a labor. Our union is battered and bruised, and fixing it requires effort.

Together, we must seek truth, not that which merely confirms our biases.

We must honor our commitments, not just those sacred promises we made to our Afghan allies, but the commitments we made to our children, that they will live in a more perfect America than the one we inherited.

We must reject the forces that seek to divide us, and recognize the idea of America is predicated on the ability for us to stand together, like I’ve seen hundreds of folks across the #AfghanEvac member organizations do.

On this Independence Day, I hope that Americans will remember that the idea of America is still worth celebrating. And still worth fighting for.