What is America?

This afternoon I was in the downstairs office, killing time, when the topic turned to politics (Go figure)...
There were four of us: Dante, Al, Brittany, and me
Two male liberals against two conservative females

We were arguing about race relations, gender issues, and policy concerns when Al posed this interesting question:

What is America?

We all went silent for a minute, dumbstruck, maybe truly thinking about the concept for the first time.
Is it the Nation-State, the United States of America, these 50 states, laid out by a specific border? The mish-mash of different ethnicities that call that land home? The laws by which we are governed? All of the above?

Creator of the Webster dictionary, Daniel Webster had this to say, and I have to agree:

Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.

-Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America, 1788

But yet, as I sat there talking to my colleagues, all born and raised in America, all from very different backgrounds, I realize that even though we were all taught basically the same history of the US, we all pulled different ideas from that history, based on our own personal biases and experiences.

Dante, a young black man, was raised in a fairly rural portion Alabama, by parents and grand-parents who participated in the great civil-rights movement of the 1960's. He admitted that, often times to him, it is all about race. It does usually come down to black v. white.

I was raised by two white parents who taught me that race, gender, and socio-economic status shouldn't matter when it comes to the opportunities afforded by our Nation.

Dante tends to see America based more on his experience: evidence of inequities, discrimination in the past and present, and a feeling that there's a lack of social justice.

I see the issues of our past, and I want to throw them out the window. I want to see a country that is colorblind, that shows no discrimination-negative or positive (a.k.a. affirmative action), I want to make my own way and be proud of what I did, I want to see others succeed and be proud of them too.

So do we see this country through glasses that are colored in the way we choose: rose, tinted, perfectly clear, or otherwise. Or are we, as Dante suggests, just "products of the American system"?

I wish that America may be the following for all:

A place of bounty

A place of equality in start

A place with a Hard Work Ethic, but a compassionate heart

A place that sees no color, gender, or other attribute that divides us, but also respects those attributes for how they have shaped us.

A place where I am nothing more or less than what I have proved myself to be

A place where people who earn a profit and provide jobs to others are glorified, not vilified

A place where our laws are respected in order to give that promise made by our constitution: a more perfect Union, which established justice, domestic tranquility, provides for the common defense, promotes the common welfare, and Secures the Blessings of Liberty for all of its citizens.

It is far from a Perfect Union. There are many shortcomings, past and present; but it's up to people like Dante, Al, Brittany, and me to change those things. We need to learn from the past, reject the notion that our differences separate us, and move forward in an America where we can appreciate our differences and turn our debate into something productive.