The United States was the first nation to be founded on an idea. It was not founded on simple conquest of territory, common religion or heritage of a conquering group. Not all of the ideas of the Founders were right for our time, but one of the ideas was that the principles of the founding could be modified by “the consent of the governed”. The rules they subscribed to weren’t written in stone and deemed immutable and holy.
I fully support most of the Founders’ ideas and most of the ones we’ve developed since then (though not all of the laws that have been derived as a consequence, and much less of the governments that enact those laws). However, I’m not a jingoist, chauvinist or nationalist. I believe that it’s possible to be “too patriotic” and to exclude others of good will who also want to subscribe to the same ideas, and I would like to welcome all who do.
I think we have come a long way from where we started, in terms of sharing and broadening those ideas with our fellow citizens. We have a long way to go to be more inclusive of fellow citizens who want to fully share in the ideas. We should also be more accepting to those who should be welcomed to participate and share the ideas and build up the nation, as well as “preserve, protect and defend” it, but who happened to be born outside its borders.
The soil, the flag, the borders mean very little to me except that I live on the soil, the flag is a symbol adopted as a visual tag of those who support and defend the ideas, and we live in a world divided by political borders.
The idea, though, that’s the thing. I love the idea.