The true potential of this great land is its power to influence, in a positive way, other peoples and other cultures. The day that America fulfills its promise, with a balance of opportunity, liberty, fairness and compassion, is the day the whole world will be inspired to eradicate intolerance, injustice and misery.
As the U.S. grew in population and wealth, the inspiring American cultural quality was inclusiveness. The idea of “family” included the community. If misfortune befell a neighbor, it was inconceivable not to help that neighbor. The ideal American traits of friendliness and generosity were exemplified in a barn-raising. Barn-raising wasn’t something that one family alone completed, with the neighbors standing around watching; the whole community took part, helped, and celebrated.
Celebrating the 4th of July is a time to consider the promise of a young country that decided to invent itself as a place with the maximum potential for good. Dynamism, optimism, opportunity, and freedom of ideas are distinctly American qualities that have made American brands and American styles the standard for the world. Those brands and styles represent a country and a culture where anything is possible through hard work and persistence.
Instead of a large landowner dominating many poor families, there was a chance in the stunningly fertile and beautiful land of America for a combination of self-sufficiency and truly moral collectivity: Helping your neighbor out of generosity and not out of obligation. With less control imposed by government, it meant Americans had the chance to enjoy more freedom and had to accept more responsibility for the state of their society.
In 1776 thirteen British colonies in the New World decided to no longer take orders from a distant King. The traditional, hierarchical system of society no longer held any attraction to the new American culture that had emerged, likely influenced by what the European settlers saw in the Native American cultures they encountered.
TIME magazine, November 17, 2008:
Barack Obama’s half-brother, Malik, lives in the village of Kogelo in western Kenya. Malik and Barack are part of the Jor’Obama clan. They have the same grandfather.
Malik is the first-born son of the first-born son and the clan leader. Alex Perry, the writer of the article, wrote, “There are so many unlikelihoods in his story that an Obama victory seemed like a fairy tale.”
Barack’s father got a scholarship to study in the U.S. In Hawaii he met and married Ann and had a son.
Malik said, “Look, my father might have gotten a scholarship to someplace like Brazil, and none of this would have happened. My brother is not supposed to accomplish even half of what he has. It’s meant to be impossible. It makes you wonder. Is this some force at work, the dynamics of nature or life? Is it God? We divided the world after 9/11. And the world said no. And through my brother, we can all connect again.”