How America lost its Way

When the Founders first got together to craft the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, the primary goal was to make rules, regulations and laws which would benefit the nation as a whole.  To leave room for it to expand to include any other provision which would also follow that one and only goal?  They crafted a piece of legislation that they believed would serve and protect the freedoms that they held dear and that was missing from the land of which they departed.  It was a moment of triumphant and it was a feeling of accomplishment.  Today every one of the Founders would look upon this land and not recognize it for all that they gave to give us an ever-expanding document to serve only one goal, we have misrepresented it and turn it into a document that suits the few and not the many.  For this we should be ashamed and beg the Founder’s forgiveness.

American lost its way when our elected leaders lost theirs.  They campaign from city to city and promise all kinds of things but then they get caught up in what their vision of America should be.  Those in the media keep asking them this question and soon the politicians begin to believe that this is the purpose for them serving.  They began to believe that it’s no longer important to follow the will of the majority but to shape this nation into their own vision.  They then begin to adopt a picture of what America should be or they accept the vision of others around them who claim to have helped them get elected or allow them time on their private jets.  They surround themselves with “like minded” people and allow no dissenting views to ever come within ear-shot.  All those who do not share their vision are now traitors or less-than human.  As one politician succeeds on this journey others then use it as a road map to begin their trip and that people is how America lost its way.

American lost its way when its citizens became complacent and lazy.  We started to get so caught up in everything that placed the spot light on ourselves that we forgot that the true strength of this nation begins with the unity of its people.  We begin to ignore the wants and needs of the majority especially if those infringed on ours.  We were not about to let anyone get further ahead than we were and even if it took sabotaging their dreams to keep them from passing us you, then we search and find justification for this action.  Life stopped being about the joys of a family or community and start being about what I can get for myself or what someone else has done for me lately.  We stopped knowing that a nation only moves ahead when its citizens come together to push it.  We stop demanding that our elected leaders do what is best for the nation as a whole and begin demanding that they do only that which will benefit a few. 

There is goodness in all of us and it has nothing to do with what our political party is, our religion, our birth right or the color of our skins.  It’s the goodness that caused the Founders to create these documents.  It’s the goodness that makes you stop to help when you see someone in trouble.  It’s the goodness that brought people all over the world together to support Trayvon Martin.  It’s the goodness that was the spark that began the Arab Spring.  It’s a goodness that ever the cynical cannot erase from our soul.  This is who we are and what we are really about.  If we are wondering when things are going to get better, it is when we stop denying the very essence of who we are and get back to embracing it fully.  When we begin again to make decisions which benefit the majority of Americans is when America will regain its way but until then look toward having an America that is more concerned with where you come from than where we are going.