I recently had the pleasure of reading a particular article that graced the front page of Odyssey over the past couple weeks. This article was bluntly titled "Shut Up, You're Lucky To Be An American." With a title as ambiguous yet stick-in-your-eye as that, I was of course drawn right in.
Comparatively, we've got it pretty nice in this country. You're not wrong.
The author has a pretty fair overall argument. "[W]e as Americans enjoy the freedom and luxuries, and even have the audacity to complain about things many countries can't even imagine having." Almost every American can silently nod their head to that and agree—I certainly did.
Ever since I was little, I was taught that America is a special place. People can be damn near anything they set out to be. We were all raised on the story of the great American legend —that with hard work, a sharp brain, and a good heart, we can earn greatness.
And even beyond the potential of what we can be... just look at what we live with every day. Look at how convenient living is here and now compared to in other places in the world or in other times in history. I'm a historian—my calling is to study the hardships of people from years past. Let me tell ya, guys: compared to folks a while back, even in our own country, our life is pretty nice.
Hell, we almost take all that for granted.
All of us are guilty of taking this life for granted sometimes. I'll freely admit, I do sometimes, and I shouldn't. We all need to learn to humble ourselves a little more and count our blessings. The author of this article definitely gets that, and I respect that.
But here's the problem with this for me.
Since when is it in the American spirit to settle for "good enough?" That's almost never been who we are —in almost anything. Be it in technology, the arts, military power, or anything. We have never been stopped from reaching higher. It is part of the fabric of who we are.
No, someone working toward social justice does not necessarily have to "get over themselves."
I've once heard this sort of situation described as a person walking up to someone with Parkinson's disease and saying, "Hey, quit complaining! Some folks have cancer, so you have no right to whine! Suck it up!" That's silly of course. A person with Parkinson's and a person with cancer are both suffering. They may be suffering in different ways, but they are still suffering. And it is entirely possible that that person with Parkinson's may feel sympathy toward the person with cancer and may donate to cancer research in order to help them and their cause.
The same is true of rights in America and rights elsewhere. It's foolish of us to think of our rights as perfect. The way I see it, there is no "perfect" when it comes to rights and equality. If there is a "perfect," we don't yet have it. We still live in a society where racism exists, women are treated unequally in the workplace, and LGBTQ+ still have to fight for their rights to simply exist in everyday society (case in point—North Carolina's bathroom laws).
America is to be the shining beacon of justice and righteousness in the world.
In a way, I am both against and for the idea of "American exceptionalism." I am against it because, as a historian, I look back at our history and see it littered with injustice—the cruel institution of slavery, or our destruction of the native peoples, or the incarceration of perfectly innocent Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. Who in their right mind can look at that and say we are a flawless nation?
Meanwhile, in a way, I do believe in American exceptionalism. I don't mean applied to the past but applied to the future. I believe that though we have not been perfect, we do have the conditions to be the world's greatest society. We can strive to provide the greatest height of self-fulfillment for everyone who lives in this nation.
Long, long ago, a man named John Winthrop paraphrased the words of Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount and said, "We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us." Winthrop was governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and he was speaking of what would one day become the United States of America.
Thus, I reject this author's exhortations to "shut up," because to do so is un-American. We always strive for the greatest limits of mankind, because that has always been our mission. We are an example to the world.
My mission as an American, I think, is best encompassed in the words of a gentleman named Carl Schurz. Schurz was born in 1829 along Germany's Rhine River and he fought a revolution there to try to bring democracy to German-speaking peoples. When the revolution failed, where did he turn? The one single great republic in the world: the United States of America. He came here, became friends with a skinny Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln, and fought in the American Civil War for the cause of liberty and union. In his old age, he served as a senator from Missouri, and he considered himself an American above all else.
In 1872, on the Senate floor, this German revolutionary turned humble American hero said these words: "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."
What he was saying is, this country is a great and beautiful one, but we can't take it as perfect. When we stray toward injustice, we need to fix it.
So why should we not speak out when we see inequality? Why should we not be enraged when we see a person of color discriminated against, even though it's fifty years after the Civil Rights movement? Why should we not defend our non-gender conforming friends just because it may slowly be becoming more acceptable? Progress cannot become complacent. It must remain active and passionate. America cannot become complacent. It must remain active and passionate.
So I say, let us continue to agitate for the causes of rights. Let us continue to march in the streets, and to protest, and to argue for the rights of our fellow Americans to do as they please. After all, it is our country. Let's make it right, today and forevermore.