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2003-02-24

"Toward A More Perfect Union"

I love the America that revealed itself last September 11: the office workers instinctively helping coworkers and clients escape, the quick-thinking aviation administrators immediately grounding all planes, the fearless firefighters ascending the doomed staircases all the way to heaven.

Throughout all the heartbreak of that awful day and since, I have loved
America. But even more than I love America, I love the idea of America: the
notion of equality, respect and fairness. The assurance that everyone plays
by the same rules.

This is the foundation of our Republic.

But there is an opposing notion. The ancients called it hubris, and it is
the foundation of Empire. It is wantonness, insolence, violence, and
outrage. It is the idea that we can impose our will on other nations just
because we have enough power to get away with it. It is the idea that we can
ignore the rules that are binding on all simply because we believe that only
we are righteous. It is to willfully forget that, in Solzhenitsyn's words,
the line between good and evil runs through the center of each human heart --
and through each human culture -- and that therefore we cannot run roughshod
over someone else's rights. Or someone else's country.

Some are openly hoping for an American Empire. But there is a better way of
spreading Americanism: let us preserve the American Republic. Let every
person and every nation know that there is a stable, safe place ruled by
equality, respect, and fairness towards all.

Let us make sure that September 11 will be remembered as the day when true
American heroism revealed itself -- not as the day when the American Republic
died and the American Empire was born.