Marietta Daily Journal - America Is Not Perfect, But We Are the Best

Op-Ed

By Rep. Barry Loudermilk

The United States of America is not just a place, it's not just a people, and it's not just a government. America is an idea -- an idea built on the principle that God created all people equally, with inalienable rights, which include the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To preserve these rights, our Founders envisioned a nation built on that divine prospect and established a government whose primary purpose to was to protect those rights.

America is unique, but not only in our form of government. We are unique in that we are one of the few nations in the history of the world that does not attempt to erase the memory of our mistakes and ills of the past. Instead, we acknowledge them, even erect monuments and memorials to remind us of where we came from, in the hope that we learn from them, and do not repeat them in the future.

Unlike some other places in the world, our monuments and memorials are not always glorious and gratifying works of art. In fact, some are designed to remind us of some of the darker and more desperate days in our history.

Just a block off the National Mall in Washington D.C. is the statue of a young man, whose feet and hands are bound with ropes, depicting the moments just before he was hung from the limb of a tree in an apple orchard in New York after being accused of treason. While there are more gratifying ways to honor the memory of Captain Nathan Hale, and the impact he had during our War for Independence, this statue immortalizes his last moments on earth and his final words just before he was hung, "My only regret is that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Another historic statue in our nation's capital is the Emancipation memorial in Lincoln Park. This memorial has become the subject of controversy over the past days. The statue, which depicts the emancipation of slaves during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, has Lincoln standing next to a black man who is rising from a kneeling position, with broken chains at his feet. The controversy surrounding this statue is that the slave is kneeling while Lincoln is standing, and this supposedly illustrates they are not equal. The statue could have been designed with the men standing side-by-side, arm in arm, like nothing wrong had ever happened; but, the intent was to remind us of the horrific injustice that was done to generations in our past.

Throughout the history of the world, those nations and cultures that have rewritten or sanitized their history by erasing the ills of their past, have inevitably repeated them, or have fallen as a nation or society.

Although America isn't perfect, we are the most just, open, and free nation in the world. While our Founders were not perfect, their ideas of inalienable rights given by God to all people were pure and right. And while our Constitution wasn't flawless at its outset, as it did not recognize enslaved Americans as people, and allowed for slavery to continue; the Framers of the Constitution put a path in place to correct that wrong, and gave us a way toward a more perfect union, recognizing the equality of all people in the eyes of God and our government.

It's true, America isn't perfect; but, we are the best because we recognize we have not perfected ourselves, and are continually reminded of our past, good and bad.

There are those that say our monuments and memorials should be destroyed, but a lot of the fervor there is because of a lack of knowledge of our history. Some of those who are vandalizing our monuments, quite frankly, don't care about our history, our country or our future as a people. They are only taking advantage of the unrest in our nation to commit acts of destruction and violence.

I understand that some can and do feel offended by some of the memorials in our states and our nation, but there is a proper way to make change.

The monuments in our nation's capital are under the care and responsibility of the federal government, and the president is taking action to protect these monuments from vandalism and destruction. The states are responsible for their own monuments and memorials and should not allow for their destruction. There have been calls on the president or Congress to take more direct action against states that allow destruction; however, I am not in favor of direct federal intervention in the case of state or local historical monuments. I believe if federal government dictates how states and localities recognize their history, this would set a bad precedent. I am, however, supporting legislation to withhold federal funding from states that do not attempt to protect their citizens, property or monuments from vandalism and destruction.

We must have law and order in this nation, but it is beholden on the state leaders to uphold the laws of their states, and the nation to protect the rights and liberties of its people to ensure we have civil discourse in our disagreements, not vigilante rule.

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