Two Americas Compete For Time and Hearts

There are two Americas. Not of the rich and poor as John Edwards would have us believe but of two mindsets: 1) the promise of America for the individual and his or her possibilities, and 2) the promise of America for the family to be nurtured and protected by religion, community, morality and legitimate authority.

The striving America. First, there is America that dominates our minds and values. An America that glorifies, exalts and protects the individual.

America is:

A land of opportunity.

A land of enormous wealth and prosperity.

A land of freedom where effort and good ideas are rewarded.

A land of competitive striving that pushes people toward excellence in their careers.

A land where the "good life" - material and social success - are tantalizingly out of reach and rampant consumerism keeps us working harder and harder.

A land of fairness and social justice where the rights of minorities are protected.

A land that takes entertainment, leisure, beauty, and sports seriously.

A land where the environment must be protected.

A land where independent thinking, diversity of experience and inclusiveness is encouraged.

A land of busyness where time is filled with activities and too little time is spent reflecting on experiences or in dialogue with others.

A land of action.

Where striving becomes counterproductive. Unfortunately, it can be a land of loneliness, emptiness, isolation, failure, and addictions among those whose grasp on the brass ring of success is not secure. Relationships are more fragile and the family is weakened by relative standards of morality based on self instead of external authority.

There is another America. This America is the America from our past, from farms and ranches, from hometowns, close-knit ethnic neighborhoods, religious observants, and tribal societies. This America is confused because it cannot escape the power of the ideology and especially the economics and secularization of the first America. Nevertheless, it has its own hidden logic that drives and organizes life under the veneer of the striving America.

This America glorifies, exalts and protects community and relational experience.

This America is:

A land where people take time for friendships, family activities and community participation.

A land where needs are met and friendships and obligations reciprocated.

A land of social accountability.

A land where caring for each other in times of adversity is expected.

A land where social harmony and peace are kept despite the personal costs involved.

A land whose people come together to honor and celebrate each other through traditions and special occasions.

A land that draws from people a sense of community, community service and leadership.

A land where each person is important and makes a difference in making things happen.

A land that is also busy, wearing and demanding; A land where a few are required to do much.

A land where social and political skills are at a premium to balance the interests of those who depend on each other over a lifetime.

A land where children are honored and their activities are pushed into the forefront of community life.

A land of belonging, security and acceptance for all but the most deviant.

A land that is self-conscious about its values and readily embraces ideology of specialness to justify its existence to the other America.

A land that is self-conscious about each other and feels vulnerable to judgments, gossip, public opinion and leveling as people judge their own worth by their neighbor and their neighbor' opinion.

A land where religion is a dominant facet of social life.

A land that is sports-minded, both in providing necessary public entertainment and carrying the weight of community pride.

A land that values today and yesterday as well as tomorrow.

This America is not as perfect as it believes. This is a land where your life is not your own. There is no anonymity and privacy except within the sanctity of a few close relationships. Spontaneity, expressiveness, and leisure are suspect. This can be a land of complacency, mean-spirited judgments, sameness and status quo. It is a land where exclusion and blame are all too common.

We need both Americas. The America we need is an America that doesn't turn its back on its past and its moral underpinnings. There is time for relationships, time for caring, time for others beyond the self, time for celebration, time for family, time for coming together in shared understanding and joy. We need the best from the America of our past and the hidden America of the heart and heartland.

The America we need is an America that prizes, sustains and protects the individual and pushes him or her to grand attainments. We need the edge, the excitement, the wondrous personal growth that comes from creatively using our talents in accomplishing worthy goals. We can be all that we can be, for the right reasons. We need an America that rewards such striving.

We need both Americas.