America is not the project of any one person. The single-most powerful word in our democracy is the word ”We.” “We The People.” “We Shall Overcome.” “Yes We Can.” That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone.
President Barack Obama
Selma, Alabama
March 7, 2015
The word “we” is inclusive. It moves far beyond the English colonists that signed a Declaration of Independence and established a constitution that begins with the words, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union….” It took many years and struggle for the word “we” to have any inclusive meaning for people of African descent brought to this land on slave ships, or for Indigenous peoples whose land was robbed from them or for Asian and Hispanic peoples and others.
The words of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” have been used over and over again by abolitionists, women suffragists, civil rights activists among others. These words remain a call to equal rights for all. They call for all of us—”we the people”—to make room for all, which is to say, they call us to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly.
In his farewell speech at the end of his second term as president, Barack Obama said, “The most important office in a democracy is the citizen.” We the people are responsible for the government we choose, the representatives and president we choose. There are certainly ways that our government could be more democratic, but it is we the people that can make it so. We can do it by movements and amendments.
Whatever the condition of our democracy, it does give us, the people, a significant degree of responsibility for our government. We have the leadership we have chosen. So, what we have chosen, in the way of leaders, says something about us as a people. And therefore, “we the people,” must take responsibility for what we choose.
We the people have opportunity to seek leaders and a government of compassion, a government that is inclusive, cares about social justice, works for the common good, rather than for the rich and powerful. We are much more inclined to seek such a government when we see beyond our own needs to those of others, especially others different from us. We the people, having compassion for the needs of others, are inclined to choose leaders with compassion.
We the people have power to choose a government of welcome and compassion for all. And where we lack compassion—especially for those different from us in ethnicity, religion, class, political philosphy, life-style—God will give it to us, if we ask. As with all that is real, compassion is a gift from our Creator. “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above.” (James 1:17)
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