Believe in America
Over the last two or three decades or so we, the citizens of the United States of America have become more divided.
Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our differences?
It’s clear that the true problems of our Nation are deep. But they can be mended.
First of all, we have no leader. I would say leadership, true leadership has been absent for the last 25- 30 years. The loyalty of the heads of our government is gone. There is no coming together for the common good. Every one in the government is doing what will help a small segment of society and not the Nation as a whole.
This is supposed to be a government of the people. But it isn’t. Who feels connected to policy makers anymore? Sure, you can tweet, buck who is really connected?
We need to learn to love each other. We are all part of this Nation. Our Nation is facing a moral and spiritual crisis. I believe in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people.
I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy. What we lack is belief in America. Without leadership, we the people of America feel lost. We have lost our belief that America is the country we thought it was. We are tired. There is growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation. There is erosion of our belief in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
The belief that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our Nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else-public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Belief in American ability has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and designers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. People believe that the next 5 years will be worse than the past 5 years. People do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
There is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. is a warning. These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last 20- 30 years.
We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet. We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability. But our Nation has been wounded. These wounds are deep and they need to be healed.
Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our Nation’s life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.
What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don’t like it, and neither do I.
What can we do?
First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.
We’ve got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America. We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.
We ourselves are the same Americans who put a man on the Moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will rebuild the unity and confidence of America.
We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.
All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our Nation and ourselves.
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What I have to say to you now is simple and vitally important.
We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war. I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our Nation’s problems. Frankly, the only way out is an all-out effort. We the People of the United States of America will lead the fight. We will not wait for the government. We will act. There are no quick answers. We can’t just reboot the system. These wounds have been a long time in the making, and they will take to to mend. Little by little we can and we must rebuild our belief in America and the principles upon which we built our nation. We must open the windows to the past and see where we left the path of greatness. Where did it all go wrong? Let us summon all the great minds. For, we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources-America’s people, America’s values, and America’s beliefs. I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength.
In closing, I urge you to get involved. Get your voice heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God’s help and for the sake of our Nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.
Thank you.
Coach
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