Bring America's Greatness to Everyone

James Clyburn, an iconic figure in both the civil rights movement and Congress, made a great point during an interview.  It's not a matter of making America great, America is already great.  It's a matter of bringing America's greatness to everyone in the country.  I couldn't agree more.  I'm often asking taxi drivers, now Uber drivers, from foreign countries, what they think about America.  For many years, and up until now, they often tell me that they wouldn't go back to their country of origin.  They believe that the United States is the best country in the world.  Are we perfect? Of course not. Can we do better? Always.  One thing that conservatives, liberals and everyone in between should be able to agree upon is that the Founders of our country were on to something.  Our Constitution attempts to frame the type of country that we have.  It attempts to frame the freedom's that we treasure.  When our country was founded, these self evident truths were not extended to all who lived in our country.  We've come a long way since then, but we're not done.  Congressman Clyburn is absolutely right.  America is great.  Let's bring the greatness to all Americans.

I really do believe in the concept that America is already a great country.  When I look around the world, the degree of corruption and political craziness abounds.  I often feel that our political process is purposefully set up to avoid major instantaneous changes.  Our separation of powers, being severely tested by trump, is unique amongst the countries of the world and generally works to provide checks and balances.  Again, it's to perfect, but the concept is good.  The wealthy and the middle class in our country are blessed with good lives.  We generally have food, shelter, clean water, and usually clean air.  On the other hand, our poor do struggle, though generally not to the same degree as the poor in other countries (with the exception of the very poor and our homeless population).  This isn't an excuse or an attempt to gloss over these issues.  It's a starting point.  We shouldn't have a homeless population.  Our poorer communities should have good schools and clean water.  We know that not to be necessarily true.

I agree with James Clyburn.  We don't need to blow up the country. We don't need to blow up our system.  We are a great country.  We just need to bring that greatness to all Americans.