E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many One

E Pluribus Unum.   Out of Many One… Our National Motto.

for the Liberty Tree

Our national motto, E Pluribus Unum, is a Latin phrase meaning:  Out of Many (people), ONE (people).  What calls us together from many people out of diverse backgrounds, nations, cultures, and yes, even races, is the dedication to shared ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence:  “That all men are created equal with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  Our nation’s ideals are goals, but just as we, as individuals, fall short of our ideals, so too as a nation we do not always live up to our vision. We fall short. But what unites us in our struggle is a dream of justice when those principles will be established in the character of our people and in the laws of our land.

There are forces right now trying to destroy our union and divide us into warring tribes with no shared goal or vision for the future; no shared ideals. They want to divide us along racial, economic, social and political lines. If they can accomplish this goal and divide us into warring, sectarian, petty clans, they will have succeeded in undermining the only fabric holding this nation together: a belief in the equality of human beings before God and one another, and a belief that all people have a right to pursue life, liberty and happiness.

Yes, we have fallen short of those commitments to the common good. We fought a bloody civil war to correct past transgressions. We paid for our mistakes with the lifeblood of many. And more recently, our people fought to establish their civil rights in the face of prejudice. Yes, prejudice is real, but through the courage of people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others, the forces of prejudice and hate were overcome when the vast majority of Americans were forced to recognize this inequality as a stain upon our national character and inconsistent with the truths of the Declaration which we hold dear.

But today we have a different kind of assault upon our shared vision. When the Marxist coalition wants to cancel our history and our culture, they not only want to erase the errors of our past but to remove our hopes and dream as well. What they wish to put in its place can never be as good as what they seek to destroy, for they have no vision. They use race to try and divide us. Their only goal is destruction and disassembly, for they have not proffered any values or ideals in its place.  Hatred, vengeance, and retribution as motives result in a greater tyranny than anything they hope to replace.  God help us if they succeed.

The problem with Marxist idealism is that it is idealism. You cannot legislate the attitudes of the human heart. You cannot control the way people think.  The attempt to do that through government can only involve violence and threats of violence that can coerce and silence the voices of disagreement but not render any change in the heart. Through fear, as in China today or with the KGB under the USSR, you can manipulate people and make them afraid to speak, but you cannot make them perfect.  Martin Luther King Jr. realized this when he said, “…the law cannot make a man love me …”  He also realized that resentment is not a way forward: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” He realized that the perfectibility of the human heart cannot be achieved through laws, government, or violence.  “Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results … But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.”

The fault of Marxist idealism is that it ignores the reality of human nature and seeks through legislation to change human nature.  The truth is that there will always be racists and prejudice. There will always be disagreements between people, some serious and some minor. There will always be imperfections in the system and the government. But to try to create perfection on earth is the product of a distorted utopianism that leads only to tyranny, just as we have witnessed in every communist country where it has been tried. In the end, the people are enslaved and the rulers rule with absolute power and money.

We at The Scholars Corner, believe there can be no room for racism because every person is created in the image of God and that those who strive to divide us by race or religion are not working for justice. We believe that freedom is the best soil in which to grow justice and that our equal value and worth before God is our nation’s greatest message to the world.