First, I want to preface by saying that this has nothing to do with any political candidate. In fact, I'm not one to believe that any amount of policy or lack thereof (for all of you libertarians out there) has the true capability to make this or any country "great." In my opinion, the greatness of a country, much like the greatness of a sports team, lies in the collective attitudes and individual efforts of the individuals within that country.
Sports teams excel when individual efforts are done in order for the entire team's success. Additionally, each individual takes pride in whatever contributions they are making no matter how small they be. This is exactly how we used to behave as Americans.
When most people think about when America was last "great," they hearken back to the '50s and '60s, and I do the same thing. Looking back on this time period, I see a country on the cutting edge of technological innovation and insured by economic stability. I see a group of individuals that truly took pride in whatever work it was that they were doing. I think about my grandma, and how she has lived what I would consider a full life whilst doing what many would unfulfilling jobs.
One of my grandma's first jobs was in the Sturgis Pants Factory. I'm not sure anyone I know would call this glamorous work, but she took pride in it. She was able to help provide for her family, and from my talks with her, it seems like this non-glamorous job gave her a renewed sense of self-worth by letting her bring in a paycheck.
Later on in her life, she was a high school custodian. Some days after I got out of elementary school, I would ride the bus to the high school and hang out with her until my momma could pick me up. I never remember her complaining about her job. Ever. This is a job that, honestly, most people look down upon, but she never did.
My grandma found pride in doing work that most people in my generation would be ashamed to do. She found pride in doing something with her life and doing it the best that she could.
If ours is the generation to make America great, then we need to keep in mind the way in which those that came before us worked. We need to remember that we don't have to be doing what others would consider great work to be great in our own hearts and the hearts of our family.
Some of you may point out that I'm looking at the past generations with rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia. I agree. The '50s and '60s were rife with inequality and racism and a myriad of other stains. I'm not ignoring these issues; I just believe that there are better things to focus on. If we focus on how far we've come since the Civil Rights Movement instead of the causes behind that movement, then more progress will come. If we implement the good from the generations before us and learn from the bad, then maybe we'll finally be able to get off this merry-go-round and move forward again.
These lessons from our past go much further back than the '50s and '60s as well. Think about when we celebrate Independence Day. Most countries celebrate their independence on the day when they were actually granted autonomy as a state, but we celebrate our independence on the day that we declared our independence and said we were free.
It took seven more years for us to actually be independent, but that doesn't matter to us. What matters to us is that we declared our independence and then put our noses to the grindstone and actually acheived it. This quality of belief in ourselves as a people and as people used to be intrinsic, but I feel like we've lost it.
Our generation seems to have become one that doesn't want to do the dirty work that it takes to be successful and for our nation to be successful. Looking back at my grandma, she has worked for everything that she has. Even though it might not be considered much by our culture, it's still hers, and we've already established that her jobs weren't what most would consider glamorous. She put true effort in, and whatever work she did she did it with all of her heart. That type of effort is what made our country great.
If we want to make our country great again, then it doesn't depend on who our president is or what types of policies they enact. It depends on us as Americans knowing who we are. It depends on us as Americans taking pride in whatever work it is that we do.
