"Your flag flyin' over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone
Who we are, what we'll do, and what we won't"
–Bruce Springsteen from the Song “Long Walk Home”
In a time when we hear “America First!” or “Make America Great Again!” as a mantra, the question goes to the lyrics above. For a long time, certain things were set in stone. That seems to have radically changed.
So, what does “America First” and the greatness of America look like?
The greatness of America is not found at the end of a baton being swung by an officer in riot gear attacking peaceful protesters. It was not found in the National Guard troops marching on the protestors at Kent State. It is not found in deploying our own military to the streets of our own cities to provide a sideshow for political gain.
The greatness of America was found in the bravery of women and men whose jaws were set firmly into a more just future as the fire hoses and attack dogs were set loose upon them in Selma. It was found in marches for women’s suffrage, for workers’ rights, or for voting rights.
That history is part of the soul, the strength of America.
We cede part of our soul when petty people remove the names of past leaders from ships because they supposedly represent an aspect of “DEI” they find offensive. We lose part of our strength when small people seethe with anger because others choose to celebrate Pride Month or observe a month dedicated to honoring the unique history of certain individuals.
We dishonor the sacrifice of our soldiers when we name military bases to honor men who took arms against the Union. We dishonor freedom’s price paid across time when we whitewash unpleasant truths and history from our libraries and history books.
But some would have you believe that is the basis of our American exceptionalism.
The greatness of America is not a nation retreating from loyal allies who joined to defend Ukraine. The greatness of America was found in unity with those allies who stood with us after 9/11 and stood united as a bulwark against the aggression of the USSR, or standing together to turn back ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.
The greatness of America is a nation confident in ourselves that we are a true land of opportunity open to all people, no matter their race, religion, where they come from, who they choose to be, or who they choose to love. The greatness is in leaders who welcome freedom of speech and hope to be challenged in the marketplace of ideas to see if they are truly worthy of this nation and its people.
But look at the images of what we are seeing in this country. Masked agents are raiding and disappearing people. Free speech is being stifled on campus, in our streets, and on social media.
The greatness of America is in retreat. The things that have made America first are waning.
America is retreating from leadership in education, research, and science. America is retreating from fighting hunger and disease in poor nations around the world. America is closing its doors to the world in various areas, including trade and international student enrollment. America is retreating from being a bulwark against aggression against people callously disregarded as “collateral” damage against the onslaught of powerful war machines.
A nation in retreat surrenders greatness.
America first and American greatness came in moments like the Berlin Airlift, the Marshall Plan, the international AIDS initiatives of George W Bush, and the response to the Ebola outbreak that saved countless lives here and around the world.
That is when we and the world could see America first and foremost as the world’s indispensable nation.
However, our preeminence is also evident in the education of our people and those around the world. It is found in research and scientific breakthroughs benefiting all humanity. It is found in the programs that extend the blessings of our nation to the most vulnerable among us. The vulnerable among us don’t fit one anecdotal stereotype from those other people.
The people who need help may be a disabled man in rural Kentucky or a tornado victim in Oklahoma. They may be a single mother in Los Angeles working to support her family, or someone fleeing political persecution abroad seeking safe haven in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
In the land of the free and the home of the brave, it seems the attempts to curb freedom to voice dissent, or the rule of law, seem to be coming from those lacking bravery.
Bravery is not false bravado, spewing venom, and using the power of the office to browbeat anyone opposing your agenda.
Bravery is not having a self-aggrandizing military parade. Those kinds of military shows are the domain of weak nations. They are a show of powerful missiles and armaments that signify a type of “over-compensation” for the men leading those nations.
A nation putting its people first could take the tens of millions of dollars spent on a parade and direct those dollars to benefit veterans’ health care or find homes for homeless veterans that this nation has left behind.
All of us want to live in a great nation, one standing as a beacon of hope and stability as the world’s shining city on the hill that Reagan spoke about decades ago. He was a man who believed in one of our most powerful symbols, the Statue of Liberty, standing in New York Harbor.
Holding high her lamp, lighting the way for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, she is the embodiment of America’s aspirational and inspirational example to the world.
That image of Lady Liberty’s Golden Torch rings hollow now. Armed thugs bully people on the orders of wannabe tough guys sitting behind a desk, retreating into hate and xenophobia.
America has been governed by confident people who could stand up to defend the rule of law and support the Constitution and the values that we have for this nation. The oath of office was not to serve a man or an agenda by circumventing centuries of precedent. The leader who imagines he is uniquely more intelligent or more important than all who came before him is certain to fail.
Every President should enter office humbled by a long arc of history before them and cognizant that they are entrusted to make decisions ensuring the legacy of our founding documents.
With the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, we set an example that was seen around the world. Now the world sees us backing away from our founding principles.
America first and American greatness is a nation that leads the world’s advance of those inalienable rights written about in 1776. America First is leading the world towards a brighter future for all people.
It is a nation where all people have lives free from fear and full of hope.
Right now, many are living in fear of our government. That is the kind of thing we never thought possible here. We are still called to be a government of the people by the people and for the people that recognizes that ALL men are created equal with certain inalienable rights. Not just citizens or “some” people of “certain” ethnicity, but ALL people.
The people who govern by fear reveal far more about their own insecurities and failings than they do about our nation. We, the people, must resist the appeal to our fears and divisions. We the people are the ones who hold the keys towards American greatness.
Until we can all aspire to our founding principles, we are not first in anything, and we fall short of the standards set for us by founders so visionary that their blueprints for our nation have lasted for centuries.
Jay Paterno is a former quarterbacks coach for Penn State University, ran for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 2014 and consults on a variety of issues.
