Walter Suza guest column: This MLK Day, a reflection on a more perfect union
“Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.” — the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The United States is the land of opportunity. The United States is the land of freedom. The United States is also the land of contradiction.
Freedom remains elusive for many; opportunity remains equal just for some. Despite this, America still must abide by its core founding ideal to become a more perfect union, where true equality is embraced by all.
To rise above the contradiction that is America, we have symbolized our nation as the melting pot, an idea that multiple ethnicities, genders, religions and ideologies can come together, live together, work together, dream together in a cohesive society that respects individual rights.
The reality, a painful one, is that melting inside the pot has been an arduous endeavor for America. Even before the Jamestown colony was established in Virginia in 1607, the desire by some was to take rather than to give. This is why enslaved Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to be turned into workhorses and Native Americans were slaughtered for their land.
Even after the emancipation of enslaved Africans and later the acceptance that Native Americans are truly Americans, we have struggled as a nation to form an integrated society. The melting pot remains disillusioned, because to some, who are still many, the diverse ingredients would melt to appear white. Perhaps this is why some question whether Native American reservations should exist, some want to end affirmative action, and some block federal funding to Black farmers.
The resistance to integrate perpetuates racism and even hate of those we deem different from us. Yet the racism I am talking about is not restricted to the streets of America. American thinkers and political leaders promoted eugenics, a bigoted method to improve the human race, which was used by the Nazis to justify the extermination of Jews. The remnants of this form of racism still prevent America from melting fully.
Many still believe it is right to refuse to welcome others to melt with us into a more perfect union. This is why in a country we call a beacon of hope for the world, migrants from Latin America are treated inhumanely. We are all humans, yet hearts still haven’t changed to see ourselves in those we seek to expel from our country.
To be human is to struggle to see the world with the eyes of fellow humans. To be human is to struggle to overcome selfishness. To be human is to struggle to overcome the fear of losing what we have and not gaining what we want. To be human is to struggle with the truth that we will not always be right.
Despite this humanness, America still yearns for democracy. The Founding Fathers gave us the Constitution to ensure checks and balances of government’s power. The Founders even challenged us to form a more perfect union by declaring that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
The Founders must have been convinced that the Constitution would be good for America. Yet the intended purpose of the Constitution cannot manifest without justice, and without justice there would be no peace, and without peace there would be no more perfect union. Laws designed from the lens of racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and all other forms of isms are a hindrance to becoming a more perfect union.
But no one is born a conservative. No one is born a liberal. No one is born with hate. We learn we are different first from those who nurtured us from birth. We cement our first socialization in our paths into adulthood to establish our viewpoints about our worlds and its surroundings.
I have been wondering what a more perfect union might look like. When might we get there? Today, I am beginning to wonder whether a more perfect union had existed even before the United States was founded. Was it always there and the Founders serendipitously wrote it into our founding documents?
If that is so, then this means a more perfect union is a perpetual ceiling over our heads. To reach it, we must want to, we must rise toward it. Sometimes we rise just enough for our heads to touch the ceiling. Sometimes we rise even higher to be above the ceiling. As more individuals rise, more individuals reach a more perfect union. A more perfect union is the hook we must use to help hearts change.
Changed hearts enable us the freedom to trudge toward the more perfect union.
Changed hearts embrace the United States as the melting pot of diverse colors, genders, abilities, religions, ages and ideologies.
Changed hearts melt away hate, prejudice and racism.
Changed hearts arise from within. From love.
Walter Suza of Ames, Iowa, writes frequently on the intersections of spirituality, anti-racism and social justice. He can be contacted at wsuza2020@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Opinion: This MLK Day, a reflection on a more perfect union
