After reading Walt Whitman’s great celebration of America, how can things go so wrong? After Song of Myself, how could we forget who we are and who we can be? Maybe we didn’t read it. Maybe we need to read it again.
A current slogan stirs the pot of political nostalgia: Make America Great Again. Whitman would be fine with the first three words. The fourth word would trouble him. Whitman’s America was already great, not perfect, but great. Whitman’s gaze was not back to the ‘good old days.’ America’s glory lay in its recognition of national imperfections and the hard work to correct them.
Whitman celebrated the can-do American spirit exhibited in its great cities, its railroads, canals, ports, factories, and its brawny laborer force who made the engine of economy run. But for Whitman the American dream was about more than making ourselves secure and comfortable.His dream gave encouragement to individuals to go deep as well as far, to draw from the unfathomable wells of pleasure and knowledge which is everyone’s right.
Whitman’s America, like the America of the founders, was the manifestation of a great idea. It was not intended to be a nation built for a certain class, or race, or religion. It was not to fulfill the destiny of ‘a’ people, das Volk, people just like me. America chose a harder and higher task, making a nation out of people who are not just like me; e pluribus unam – many formed into one. The intention was to create a nation dedicated to maximizing opportunity for all. Of course, we got off to a shaky and historically determined start. But the question calling us to greatness has been and remains; who is included in the ‘all’ when we recite with hand over heart, ‘with liberty and justice for all.’
At our best, the American story has been distinguished by expansion, not contraction.
At our best, the American story has been distinguished by inclusion, not exclusion.
At our best, the American story has been distinguished by plurality, not singularity.
At our best, the American story has been distinguished by diversity, not uniformity.
Our national story is the enlargement of who is included in the all.
We see this inclusion as strength, not weakness.
May this continue to be our reason for being America.