Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and What It Means to be an American

I'm always surprised by those who suggest that you cannot change the minds of other people through reasoned discussion.  I suppose the reason it surprises me is that I have, on more than one occasion, had radical shifts in some long-held beliefs.  Friends I have recently made are often shocked when I reveal to them some of these former thoughts.  I wasn't stupid or cruel back then: I just believed different things.  Then something happened.  I read something, someone talked to me, or I had some life experience that caused me to re-evaluate my position.  Isn't it supposed to work like that?

Well, it's that time again, and my Facebook is filled with opinions, both left and right.  I've been asked by a couple of people to clarify mine, so I thought I'd write a manifesto.  Well, not really a "manifesto," so much as a numbered list of things I think about a lot.  Here it goes:

1. America is an idea.  Now, I know a lot of people have noted this, but I'm not sure everyone gets what the idea is.  Some people talk about the "American dream," or whatever, and it seems to have something to do with owning a new home with a low-interest mortgage and being able to go to church.  I think the basic idea is that it doesn't matter how much money you have, or what your family name is, or what boat your people came over on, you get to decide who you are.  To me, Bob Dylan is the quintessential American.  He was the son of Armenian Jews living in Minnesota until he heard some hillbilly music on old 78 records and decided to change his name and become a folk singer.  A few years later he found that pigeon hole a little constrictive, so he plugged in and became a rock and roller.  Then he was a farmer, an evangelical Christian, a Hasid, a radio host - whatever he wanted to be.  That's an important idea in America.  Not only that, it's a civilizing idea that we should be exporting as much as possible, not by forcing others to adopt our political system, but by simply sharing the joy of that type of liberty.  The Cold War was largely won because Russians wanted to wear blue jeans.  That also means that the idea of American exceptionalism, or that America has something to do with this piece of real estate or a certain group of European descendants, doesn't make any sense.
2. Human beings are our greatest resource.  This has really always been true, but it's more apparent in the times in which we live.  Agrarianism is not viable for the overwhelming majority of us, fossil fuels are getting harder to extract and are limited anyway, and our economic vicissitudes since 2008 should teach us not to rely on our bank too much.  We need people.  Creative people who think critically and are able to solve problems.  We talk about that as an economic imperative, but the truth is, we need people like that in every area of our lives.  We should stop viewing school children as future "earners" and imagine them instead as those who can solve the world's problems.  If we did, it would radically change how we think about education in this country, and how we treated other people, including the very poor and the elderly.
3. If we want our political system to work, or perhaps even survive, we need to stop demonizing our fellow citizens.  One of my favorite quotes is by a Scottish theologian named Ian MacLaren who said, "Be kind: everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."  When I post that on Facebook, everyone seems to like it, but it doesn't keep us from talking shit about other people.  (I include myself among the guilty.)  I've heard people refer to the President of the United States as "evil."  Others have called his opponent an "idiot."  Now, less I be misunderstood, I get that people do things that just get on your nerves at times.  Let someone attack the importance of arts education, and I can lose my cool.  But here's the thing: people on the other side are Americans, too.  Everyone talks about the "47%" or the "other 99%" or whatever, but it's all of us.  I remember sitting in a meeting of arts educators once and a national presenter said, "We need to realize that some of those 'red state' people like the arts."  It never even occurred to him that a "red-state person" could be an artist.  We're in this boat together.  Johnny Cash once said that he had been friends with every U.S. president since Richard Nixon, and that he admired them all - though he hadn't voted for all of them.  
4. We need to decide what it means to be an American.  I don't think it has anything at all to do with religion or race or place of origin or language.  Some of the most brilliant contributions to America come from those who were the "tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free."  Some talk about "protecting our borders" as if there are hoards of Mexican terrorists blowing things up all over the South.  (We seem to forget that the Mayflower was filled with illegal immigrants, or did I miss the part of American history where the Massasoit granted travel visas to the Puritans?)  The truth is that too many of us just don't like people who are different.  That's not right and we need to say that - kindly, but firmly.  We insist on being left to ourselves, to being allowed to pursue our own happiness, yet we can also be very intent on preventing others from doing so at times.  It is okay to disagree with another without denying her basic humanity, or her "American-ness."
5. Our political dialog in this country needs to be elevated.  Although I adore social media (and the Internet in general) it has allowed us to be lazy in becoming well-informed and thoughtful in our decision-making.  It seems that we are much more adept as reciting talking points of our political parties than we are at discussing issues thoughtfully and respectfully.  Everyone is an expert on limited government, but no one has read The Federalist Papers.  Everyone has an opinion on Islam but no one knows the five pillars or the history of the Near East.  When was the last time you heard someone say, "I'm not sure - I think I would have to have more information before making an informed decision on that issue"?
6. Along those same lines, our political dialog in this country is too often dictated by the opinions of the far right and far left.  (This actually merits a lengthier discussion regarding electability in increasingly gerrymandered districts.)  The abortion debate is a good example.  Virtually the entire discussion is dominated by those who hold the extreme positions, yet the majority of Americans seem to have a position that is somewhere in between.  We need to have good faith discussions about hard topics like these without trying to destroy each other.
7. I support massive campaign finance reform.  I just read that the presidential candidates have already spent $575 million on television ads alone.  When you factor in all the other campaigns and all the other media, that means that we spend billions in determining who is in power.  I think that decent people would agree that this is unconscionable.  Our elected officials spend their entire political careers working toward re-election, to the neglect of other, more important duties.  I understand the concerns of those who believe the First Amendment protects political spending as protected speech, and might be tempted to agree with them if it did not seem to actually exclude many voices from being heard at all.  There has to be a better way for finding our political leaders.
8. Speaking of the First Amendment, I will happily add here that I support the Bill of Rights without reservation.  In my lifetime I have seen both the left and the right seek to curtail certain of these rights, especially that of free speech.  Although I have yet to meet an absolutist on this issue (fire in a crowded theater, etc.), I think I come pretty close.  I also support gun rights in a way that makes some people nervous.  There are those who suggest that we do not need powerful weapons when we have a standing army, but I would tend to think we need powerful weapons because we have a standing army.  I believe that many of the actions of our current federal government, especially those conducted under the guise of protecting our national security, actually constitute violations of these rights.  
9. Race is still the biggest issue in American culture.  How could it be otherwise?  Africans and their descendants were slaves in this country for over 200 years, then were denied basic human rights for the next 100+ years.  This is the classic example of "Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind."  All Americans, black and white, owe a huge cultural debt to both Europe and Africa.  The tension of this uneasy and usually violent relationship led to poignant and expressive art, especially in music.  (All American music has elements of both northwestern Europe and west Africa: blues, ragtime, hillbilly, jazz, rock, country, bluegrass, gospel, soul, hip-hop and all the rest.)  The downside has been generations of broken families, crime, and poverty.  Those who can't see the relationship between hundreds of years of racial oppression and 850,000 African-American men in prison are just blind.
10. I'm not sure what to think about our role on the world stage right now.  (Please see #5 above.)  I'm tempted to believe we should leave others to their own devices, yet I'm personally troubled when I see our fellow travelers in this world murdered or imprisoned without good cause.  We have the unique ability as a nation to intervene, yet our history of interventions has been very far from pure in motive or outcome.  In many (most?) cases, it has tended to backfire.  I realize how wishy-washy this is for a manifesto.  Can I get back to you on this one?
11. Demand more art.  (You didn't really think I was going to leave that one out did you?)

So, this is my thinking right now.  It's certainly subject to change.  Is it too much to hope you might want to talk about your ideas, too?