As California Pacific University celebrates over 30 years of business instruction, it seems more than appropriate to look back through the decades since we began and comment on where America has been and where we are likely headed as a nation.

As we enter our fourth decade of teaching, a kaleidoscope of images evoking a myriad of events comes to mind.  We began amidst the clamor of our nation’s bicentennial celebration and we have seen fads come and go including long hair, big hair, and no hair!  And we’ve seen momentous events from the first shimmering Space Shuttle take off and landing, to the brick by brick dismantling of the graffiti strewn Berlin Wall torn down by freedom hungry individuals and left in heaps like a giant, abandoned jig saw puzzle never to rise again.  And yes, we’ve also seen the smoldering horror of the 9/11 inferno where hope and prosperity among nations once dwelled, and where both will once again dwell.  Most significantly, we’ve seen our nations best young men and women, khaki clad and all volunteers resolute in their determination to keep the home front safe and sovereign.

Of all the societal shifts that have taken place in the last 30 years one stands out above all others because of the crippling effect it has had on us as a nation and that is the embracing of institutionally enforced quota systems.  Originally intended to even the playing field in order to make society more equitable, quota systems have actually created a ‘schism’ between how we think we should be as a nation and what we are innately as a nation.  In order to understand this, we first need to look at what have been the unintended consequences of quota systems, and then we need to look at the traditional character of this country. 

Favoring one group over another at any given time, quota systems have had a dramatic downside.  Entire generations have been taught to believe:

• Historical wrongs can be righted in the present by creating new wrongs.
• Revenge is an imperative.
• The ends always justify the means.

This in turn has cultivated in many people:

• A tendency to reinvent reality to suit a specific agenda.
• A sense of entitlement for that which they have not earned.
• A tendency toward ‘group think’ over reasoned thinking.
• A tendency to react instead of think.
• A fierce ‘chip on the shoulder.’
• An angry rejection of the past; specifically America’s past.

In fact, many Americans have been all but forced to endure an almost embarrassment for even being American.  Being American has become for some almost a secular ‘original sin.’  We are told that by our very nature we are the bad guys.  We are the Imperialists.  We are the greedy pigs lumbering about, stepping all over our own and everyone else’s feet, spreading our decadence wherever we go.

And yet, at our best, we are a ‘melting pot’ not a collection of disparate groups, vying with one another to leverage ethnicity, sex, or sexual orientation for the sole purpose of gaining an unfair advantage one group over another.  There is a huge difference between ‘being’ ______ (fill in the blank) and ‘doing’ ______ (fill in the blank).  The former gives us a shared strength; the later is phony and weakens us as a nation.

Not everyone succumbs to such behavior.  Through the years we have been privileged to work with countless men and women who have truly been our heroes!  We’ve worked with many in all branches of the armed services, as well as, police departments around the country.  In all cases, these individuals chose to put themselves on the line to keep the rest of us safe and secure.  Stop to pause and reflect for a minute, what would our lives be like without them?

And specifically we’ve had the privilege to work with Americans of all stripes who have inspired us with their courage and perseverance.  The man who finished his degree even as he was going blind or the woman with painful Lupus who graduated with straight A’s or the Coroner determined to track down cold case files and bring some peace and closure to the families and friends of murder victims or the woman who didn’t skip a beat with her studies while taking care of her relatives who were victims of Katrina, the list is endless!

There is so much so right about America and as Americans we must focus on what we share in common.  For, there is so much more we share in common than not.  By our nature Americans are:

• Principled.
• Fair and believe in earning what they get.
• Team players.
• Emotionally hardy.
• Generous.
• Optimistic.
• Adaptable.
• Pragmatic.
• Proud
• People that value life and the worth of each individual.
• People who think for themselves.
• People who enjoy a challenge.
• People who don’t back down.
• Innovative.
• Mavericks.
• People who are not fearful and take the lead.
• People who believe in a better future for succeeding generations.

What does all this say?  It says that we as a nation thrive when we nurture what is innate in us but when we suppress what it is to be American, or allow others to suppress us, we can expect to stagnate or worse. 

America is the greatest experiment in Democracy in human history. Far from being over, it is just beginning.  It will endure because we are hard wired to make it continue and make it prosper.  To make it prosper not just for ourselves, but also for anyone now and in the future who wishes to join us, albeit wholeheartedly.

This experiment in Democracy is a gift born of sacrifice, forged in the blood and determination of those who came before us and delivered into our collective hands for safekeeping.  It is ours to perfect, preserve, and share.  It is not ours to squander by allowing America to be subsumed under the absurdity and tyranny of the politics of divide and conquer.