America is a great country and the people
have spoken.
America is a great country with patriotism
that comes in many profiles and a people
who want a society in which we lift each
other up, treat each other with respect,
live up to our highest ideals, and always
remember that in this country we are all
in this together.
America is a melting pot of diverse people, alternately united and
uplifted by the positive spirit, or divided and brought down by lesser
instincts of leadership and institutional elites.
America has spoken against the abuses,
corruption and politics of destruction and
in favor of a new respect for our diversity,
our freedoms, common sense and the rule
of law.
In the real America today, the 80% feel alienated and insulted by
political elites,
media elites, and economic elites who
inter-act with each other, and treat the rest of us as bystanders,
idiots or objects for manipulation.
America has spoken and wants a renewal
of integrity and respect in our foreign and
domestic affairs, and has given Democrats a
moment not only to win a powerful victory,
but build a historic political realignment as a
majority party that lifts America up, and
brings America together.
Literally every average American I talk to outside Washington asks: what
is wrong with
all of you, in our capital? How many times have you thought of
television: so many channels, so litte to watch? Whole new
markets and homes for alternative media
attract gigantic numbers of people looking for content and community
they can call
their own.
Will America's ultimate answer to 9-11 be a descent into our national
divisions and exploitation of escalating discontents?
Or will Americans rise to the occasion again, befitting the country
created by the Declaration of Independence, a diverse people who come
together in common cause, shared patriotism, where great dreams still
come true, and the American Idea remains a beacon for the world?
America has spoken with a mighty voice.
Lets step back, and consider the real America in which good and decent
people are making our country and world a better place, quietly and
nobly, in their families, communities and daily lives. They are not
recognized by our political elites nor supported by the media moguls or
most of our mega-wealthy, who
seem to believe in noblesse oblige, without the oblige.
America is blessed with young people who so generously give their time
and money to fight genocide in Darfur and per capita are infintely more
generous than our lengthening list of billionaires. There are waitresses
and cab drivers who give generously to fight hunger when the collection
plate is passed, who are far more generous than the owners and the
publishers of our great cable networks, and our declining-circulation
newspapers.
America is a great country, and patriotism comes in many colors. There
is a national hunger throughout the land for a bringing back together of
the American nation and the American people.
This broad, wide, unifying, All-American spirit of patriotism is so
quintessentially American that is incomprehensible to many in the real
America, why it is held in contempt, or merely ignored, by the power
elites who live in their own alternative universe and treat the rest of
us, as aliens in our own country.
Once upon a time in the real America, the whole nation gathered around
our television sets to watch the courage, daring and vision of John
Glenn going into orbit, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, and Sally
Ride being the
first woman in space.
Our entire nation stood applauding with awe, as one. The entire world
watched with us, cheering the great achievements of a good and united
America that was the beacon of hope, and the standard of excellence, for
the world.
I was talking a year ago with an elderly gentleman who had lived through
the
heroism of the Great Generation in the
Second World War. He happened to be
on vacation in Spain on the day John
Glenn went into orbit. Sitting at the bar of a Spanish Hotel when the
picture of Glenn flashed across the television screen.
The crowd burst into spontaneous applause, and this good man of the
great generation found his eyes glistening with tears of joy and pride.
America is a great country.
Patriotism comes in many profiles.
The politicians treat voters like idiots with endless attacks on each
other. The major
media treats audiences like dullards with steady streams of
superficiality, slanders and senationalism. The so-called experts talk
down to average Americans, telling us what we are supposed to think.
It seems as though everything and everyone in this alternative universe
highiltes the negative, the angry,and the things that divide us from
each other.
Yet every hour, every day, in every community in America good people are
working together to make things better.
One of the most important and under-reported events is that leadership
of conservative evangelical Christians, inspired by young people in
their Churches, are beginning to work together with progressives in the
battle against global warming.
The danger that global warming poses to
our earth is one of the great moral and environmental issues of our
times, and
there is a coming together in a unifying spirit from the great diversity
of American points of view.
Lets have a revival of shared patriotism from
men and women of all faiths and beliefs that
ends practices such as torture and begins a
historic victory to end the danger of global
warming.
After freedom defeated Hitler and those concentration camps were closed,
the whole said: never again. But it keeps happening again, most recently
in Darfur. But for every Darfur that proves that darks night of the soul
still live in our world, there are men and women of faith and hope,
working to stop it.
Last year I went to the rally against genocide in Darfur, and was moved
by the goodness and goodwill of the speakers and crowd that brought
together virtually every religion.
Prominent conservatives and liberals stood side by side. It was
extraordinary to walk among the crowd and chat with young people
representing all races and every conceivable religious and secular point
of view.
That moment was a coming together. Catholic schools and young
evangelical Christians.
Jewish youth groups side by side with young Americans who believe in
Islam. A Marine
Corps captain side by side with the movie star George Clooney, who is
beginning to rise to the role of Frank Sinatra, who brought together
entertainers in support of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
Lets end the politics of destruction and begin
a new politics in which the rising tide will lift
all boats and God's work will truly be our own.
Lets inaugurate a new era of activism and
engagement that mobilizes the actors, writers,
artists, and athletes of our times to use the
talent that God gave them for the work that
God has put here to do.
The extraordinary potential of artists is shown by the diversity of
performers that travel the world in tours for the U.S.O.
From Al Franken and Robin Williams to the galaxy of country and western
stars that always show great generosity. From many on talk radio
including conservatives such as Sean Hannity and progressives such Randi
Rhodes on Air America. We are not divided about everything. There is
tremendous commitment and goodwill that transcends the differences that
tear us apart.
The politicians divide us, the media dramatize the latest local murder,
the dance contests of the famous, the sick and the sensational. But
every day, in every community, Americans are manning the soup kitchens
and visiting our wounded troops in hospitals. Americans of every
background and faith are working to help our homeless heroes, those who
served our country bravely but face hard times on the grates of our
streets and the shelters of our cities.
I have been championing this cause of the homeless heroes, and while I
have not had much success with the billiionares and famous broadcasters
it has been extraordinary and moving to receive letters from waitresses
and cab drivers and the local pastor, priest and rabbi asking how they
can help, or telling me what they are doing in their communities today.
This is a cause that can mobilize more than a hundred million veterans,
military families and believers from all houses of worship.
Imagine what is possible if we mobilize the millionaires and movie stars
to match the generosity of cab drivers and waitresses.
Lets have Democrats and Republicans work
together for new policies and Iraq and national
that save the policy from disaster, while men
and women of goodwill and faith work to feed
the hungry, cure the ill and help the homeless.
Imagine what is possible if we mobilize the power of the progressive
blogosphere with the power of conservative talk radio in the common
causes shared by so many good people, from so many different
backgrounds, already, today.
America is a great country.
Patriotism comes in many profiles.
It is time for a renaissance of the national spirit, a coming together
of the American people with our national leaders and national
institutions to restore the American idea that we, as a melting pot of
diverse people, are in this together.
If there is one magic moment that describes America it was July 4, 1826,
exactly 50 years after the signing of the great Declaration.
On that day, Thomas Jefferson and John
Adams rested in different places in America, breathing their last
breaths on earth, paying tribute to each other.
Jefferson spoke of Adams.
Adams spoke of Jefferson.
And that day, after those words, they left us, together.
Exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, their
last great words as Americans reminded us of the spirit that makes
America America.
Dare we believe it was a sign from God that they both died that day,
with those words?
America is a great country, and patriotism comes in many profiles, and
so long as we remember that, with all of our challenges, America will
always be the land of big dreams and happy endings.
America is a great country, patriotism comes
in many profiles, and America has spoken once
again that our people want a country that lives
up to our highest ideas, our people want leaders who live up to our
highest standards,
our people want a nation that lifts us to reach
for our highest hopes.
America is a great country, and the American
people have spoken. Patriotism comes in
many profiles. The American people have rejected the politics of
destruction and division, and have demanded in which we all ask what
we can do for our country, together, and then
do it, together.