In 2016, Mr. Donald Trump ran for president based on the campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” During his 2020 campaign, he used the similar slogan, “Keep America Great.” Certainly, I would expect that any American would want our nation to be great, but slogans, campaigns, and even presidents are not what makes America great. It is our people that can make this a great nation. Our many natural resources help too, but it still takes people to do something great with the resources.
We can also look at various aspects of what we would call greatness. We could speak of a great economy, a great military, great technology, great tourism, great manufacturing, great research, great land size, great population size, and many other things. We could perhaps make a case for each of these, that in this aspect, America is indeed great. But there is an aspect of the United States that I feel we really need to work at and improve on.
For several decades, I have watched what seems to be a growing division between our people, Americans against Americans. We really notice it during major political campaigns, as politicians attack and slander each other. But we also see it on social media with the way people sometimes harass and belittle each other. Many crimes, including scams, identity theft, etc. are further evidence of division. And even in homes and families, we see much division, as once-loving marriages end or as domestic violence takes place.
Unity in America is long overdue. Many people are noticing and calling for more unity, but I still don’t see a lot of evidence that we are on real path toward unity between Americans. I believe we could truly make America even greater if we, Americans, could truly build unity amongst us. Many people would be happier and have more energy to put to worthwhile causes. We could focus more of our energy on prosperity and advancement, rather than cleaning up after age-old problems between people. Because I believe this, my work includes looking for ways to get people to build unity.
For example, during the 2017-2018 school year, I worked at one of the elementary schools in Tooele County School District as STEM instructor. Every class from first through sixth grades would have a turn spending time each week in the STEM lab with me. For the last few months that I worked there, I started having the older classes recite a unity pledge each time they would come in for their STEM time. For some time, I have felt a strong need for us to build more unity. I wanted to encourage students to think more in ways that contribute to unity. As a substitute teacher, I also talked with the students about similar things, but with the students in the STEM lab, I had them recite this unity pledge because we had recurring time together:
I am an American.
I have a part in making America great.
To make it great, I will help build unity by:
– caring about the people around me
– looking for and sharing truth, not lies
– and keeping my wants in their proper place
I see each of the three bullet points mentioned here as principles that can strengthen unity. If each person living in the United States lived by these three ideals, I believe we would see many improvements in our country, improvements that would eliminate many of the situations and conditions that people often view as problems. But it is WE, THE PEOPLE, who must do it. We can’t wait for the government or someone else to fix these problems. We have the power and the responsibility to make America greater by building unity with fellow citizens and residents. With Lightward Bound, I am continuing my focus on looking for ways to build unity, particularly through increasing light in our communities. Please read the mission and vision statements to find out what it’s all about: Home Page.
Emil Therianos
Founder, Lightward Bound