“(We) must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” — Ben Franklin
When Franklin uttered those words, as a new report points out, he wasn’t dangling a metaphor before his countrymen, hoping they’d find some deeper meaning in his call for unity. The country was on the verge of revolution. Without unity, they would all, literally, hang separately.
Today, it’s easier to find the metaphorical meaning in those words that still ring true. We’re a nation held together by the weakest of threads, like “Monday Night Football” and “American Idol.”
We’ve divided ourselves into political camps of red and blue. We’ve cast aside traditional American holidays, such as Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays and Columbus Day. Even our “United We Stand” bumper stickers cause division.
Our great American melting pot has turned into a salad bowl, with separate cultures and identities. We’ve always been a nation of immigrants, but now we have to press 1 for English.
And we’re in danger, according to the Bradley Project on America’s National Identity, of morphing into a country where our national motto of “E pluribus unum” — from many, one — means just the opposite — from one, many.
Or has it already happened?
The Bradley Project was created in 2007 to ignite a national dialogue on what it considers to be America’s growing identity crisis. Its recent report, based on polling and interviews with scholars, public figures, journalists and policy experts, assures us that what unites us is actually greater than what divides us. But it also details how America has fractured in recent decades.
The report champions some of the ideals put forth by Republicans in recent years — mandatory civics and U.S. history courses where the “good” part of our history is taught, too — but its findings cut across party lines and question what it really means to be an American in 2008.
The project found 84 percent of us still believe in a unique American identity, but 63 percent believe that identity is weakening. Nearly one in five think the nation is so divided that a common national identity is impossible, according to the HarrisInteractive survey.
Young people, according to the poll, are even less likely to be proud of their country or to believe that it has a unique national identity.
Many consider themselves to be “global citizens” and believe that international law should trump the U.S. Constitution if there’s a conflict.
The report pins some blame on how students are taught, saying they hear too much about the nation’s failings. It recommends they first be taught “about America’s great heroes, dramatic achievements and high ideals so they can put its failings into perspective.”
What young people think of their country matters because, as the report notes, America was founded on ideas, not on a common ethnicity. “Knowing what America stands for is not a genetic inheritance,” the report says. “It must be learned” by each new generation or wave of immigrants.
Take a look at the report online. Its recommendations for healing the nation are somewhat simplistic, but there’s something refreshing about them: Celebrate our differences and our diversity, but also celebrate what we share as Americans. Our language. Our Constitution. Our rights and freedoms.
Or else.
Editorial page editor Dan Haley can be reached at dhaley@denverpost.com.
