American Beauty

(Due to technical difficulties and unspeakable complications, this post written on Sunday is only now being posted. I will soon post several entries to get caught up for today and be ready for tomorrow.)

Today’s flights across America on a relatively cloudless day gave me time to reflect on our country as I rarely do. I made a point of looking out the window on the entire flight. I find beauty in the Great Lakes, the farms and prairie where I was reared, and the topography that gives rise to the Rocky Mountain whose majesty never ceases to move my soul. I let American beauty speak to me today.

Today as I looked at America, I was reminded of the profound beauty of Europe. I have often flown from London to Eastern Europe. When I look at Europe from the air I see its great beauty, but I am also drawn to consider the wars and bloodshed the land has witnessed over the last 500 years. Today as I looked at America I pondered the question, “Why have we, for the most part, been spared the fate of Europe?”

I don’t know the answer, but we Americans have been given a gift on incalculable value. On a day like today, I cannot help but ask the question: Will we be able to preserve and steward this gift and pass it along to our children?

I think the answer to the question is found in a phrase often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville. “America is great, because she is good, if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

As I looked from above at the major cities, numerous communities, and countless farms from the sky, I was struck by the fact that the future of America lies with the 300 million people that inhabit this land. What is about to unfold in Denver and St. Paul is significant. What is decided in the November election matters, but none of it would matter without good decisions being made by 300 million of us every day.

Democracy is only possible when enough people do the right thing when no one is watching. We are by no means a perfect nation, but have been given a great gift. My deepest concern as I watch what unfolds at the conventions is to the extent to which the Parties help us steward the great gift we have been given, and help us use it for the benefit of others.

What gives me hope is that I know many of the people assembling in Denver and St. Paul are precisely the kind of people who add this kind of value to our lives. One person I hope to meet in Denver is the Honorable James Rosapepe. As US Ambassador to Romania, he came to Saint Anselm and spent time with the Romanian community. Unlike me, he knew what kind of meeting it would be. But he went willingly. He listened patiently to the tragic stories of relational hardship these people and their loved ones face due to the difficulty of obtaining visas for their family members living in Romania. The Romanian Americans wanted his help, and they never really understood that in our system of separation of powers he simply did not have the power to resolve their problems. But rather than raise false hope and receive their praise, and rather than just saying no, he stood before them and wept openly as he told them the truth about the challenges and long road they faced in their quest for a visa. That day they Romanian community went away knowing that they had just encountered a person who not only would do everything he could to help them, but that he would sow tears with them.

If I find in Denver and St. Paul more James Rosapepe’s, I know that our future is bright no matter which party controls congress and the White House.