An excellent read on why bigotry--in all its us vs. them forms--are a hardwired pox on our noblest ideals. What joins the Americans one to another is not a common ancestry, language or race, but a shared work of the imagination that looks forward to the making of a future, not backward to the insignia of the past. Their enterprise is underwritten by a Constitution that allows for the widest horizons of sight and the broadest range of expression, supports the liberties of the people as opposed to the ambitions of the state, and stands as premise for a narrative rather than plan for an invasion or a monument. The narrative was always plural; not one story, many stories, all of them given the chance of making sense or love or money. Love of country follows from the exercise of its freedoms, not from pride in its fleets or its armies. laphamsquarterly.org/foreigners/them
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 01:32:24 +0000
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