The America Dream

These days it seems everyone is either an unquestioning 'patriot' or a jaded cynic about America and its history - even in other countries.
You either think America is the greatest country on earth or a hypocritical fraud.
It seems to me the most radical position one can take is that it is neither - and both.
The truth is there IS greatness in America. When it was founded, it was revolutionary in a spiritual sense and not just a political one. There was a spirit of noble rebellion throughout the developed world of the time, a real leap in mankind's progress. And America was the perfect place to put these new theories to the test. If one was a believer, one could make a case that America was founded and created just for that test. Men created equal? Government answering to the people? These WERE radical ideas then.
And then and now, they were hard ideas to live up to. So we failed over and over. But that same country that was genocidal to the natives and brutal to the Africans WAS a beacon to many huddled masses all around the world. Land was taken from the natives, but given to many who never would have had a chance at it back home.
One could also make a case that possibly there would have been more revolutions and more progress overall if those masses HADN'T had the escape valve of America. Would the world be better off that way?
Too late now.
But many of those countries have now accepted the same ideas and in their own ways have instituted them. In some ways those countries have even passed us, so the claim that we are the greatest is dubious. But our founders would have LOVED that. Replication of our experiment would have been their fondest hope.
Bottom line is that America's promise is truly wonderful and it floats above and ahead of us forever. It isn't perfect, it may or may not be the best country on earth, but how good it is in the end is up to all of us. Neither unquestioning patriotism or cynical defeatism will help in that effort. We need to see what is wrong and believe it can be better. Then act on that.