Local View: America will be the nation we all make it

As we enter the new year, the future of our nation is still in our hands. America will be as good or bad as the American people themselves. How we act locally and who we choose to be as individuals and as a community will create the future of our nation.

We all love our country, and most of us continue to believe that America is meant to be a shining city on a hill, an example and inspiration for all the world, prioritizing love, generosity and competence. America was never meant to be the Roman Empire, greedily and violently conquering the world to glorify a few egotistical and greedy men. America is something new and better, not a slope-shouldered acceptance that things will never get better, nor a return to ancient barbaric ways.

So, reject foolish notions like, “greed is good,” “America first” or “Christian conservatism.” Christianity, like almost every code of ethics, says, “love one another, love your neighbor, love your enemy, love the poor, and love the Samaritans.” Nowhere does it say, “pursue money, pursue corporate power, and cut taxes.” Nowhere does it say, “The people who founded America have the only right way of living, and we must protect ourselves from any other cultures who come into America, or who live in other nations.” Nowhere. Those ideas are un-Christian and unethical.

They’re also un-American. Global trade is the engine of our economy. The global trade order was created by America. It is nourished by the free exchange of ideas across cultures, efficient trade among nations and ongoing growth of a large middle class — not concentration of wealth to the few. Growth and jobs are fueled by expanding the middle class, not by fattening the oligarchy.

America’s opponents are those who deny human rights, promote theocracy, love dictatorship, grab land that isn’t theirs, and extract the wealth of their nations for an elite few. That’s Russia, Iran and North Korea, and it’s not who America is meant to be.

Good jobs for working people. Love our neighbors in the global community, love the poor, love cultures who are not like us, and be competent and bold. My vision for America — and I think it should be yours — is to fight poverty and oppression at home and abroad, build deep friendship with all the countries of the world who share that vision, and unite to exclude the last few rogue nations from any economic growth until they choose to join the community of modern nations. That community is defined by human rights, the rule of law and authentic democracy. America must embrace those values ourselves and be the leader of an unstoppable global coalition bringing those same inalienable human rights to all people, everywhere.

That brand of American leadership brings good jobs to working Americans and stability abroad. It is the common-sense ethic that most Americans still live by, namely, do well for ourselves while we also do right by others.

Anything less is beneath our calling. It’s disgraceful to waste our inheritance fighting about taxes, race or sexuality. Of course the rich have to pay taxes, all races are welcome, and sexuality is your own business and not the government’s. A nation like America tearing itself apart over those long-settled issues is shameful.

Let America be America. A good nation of decent people that lets working people prosper, allows sick people to get health care, and hungry and unhoused people to eat and sleep in a warm, dry place. A global leader promoting economic inclusion and human rights for billions of people while facing down oppression and dictatorship.

A strong, tough nation that stands for good, not evil. Good, not money. In a choice between money or millions of people being oppressed, let America choose to sacrifice a little money.

America will be the nation we all make it. Let’s make it a good one.