Potential

Follow the energy! People would prefer a beacon of hope, but without it they'll settle for a security blanket. One presidential candidate is offering America a security blanket, and the other one is trying to say he has a better one. Where is the energy going.

I think there is a vast untapped pool of psychic energy waiting, and that energy is potential-–the potential of the American people (and of all people) to rise to the challenges of our time, to envision new and positive and more inclusive possibilities, and to make those possibilities real. Unless we are focusing on some measure of not-yet-but-possible, we are either regressing or standing still. But since others are moving, standing still will result in our falling behind.

I wonder whether our country’s leaders have fallen behind “we the people.” I wonder whether, in their anxiety to either hold onto energy and power or acquire it, they are looking backwards while the people move on. One only has to observe the political trend that America is taking to see that, if it continues, our leaders will take us not toward global leadership and empowering connection, but toward global isolationism and the rejection by the rest of the world of a super-power that they see (or will see) as overbearing, selfish, and dangerous.

Our greatest leaders have always tapped into the potential of the American people. They have always encouraged us to use our unique history and position and resources to be more than we are already. They have offered us their positive vision, but also engaged us in that vision and invited our participation--knowing that it is really the people, not their leaders, that will get us there. They have never pretended they could do it all for us, but have expressed their desire to do it with us.

Let’s listen to some of their voices:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

... first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.... when there is no vision the people perish.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men....

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in and parts of the United States of America--a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer.

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.... Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream....

... With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

John F. Kennedy:

... the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God....

Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are--but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

... And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

Amen.

Posted by Elissa Bishop-Becker at September 19, 2004 6:11 PM | TrackBack