Nation of systemic opportunity

Mark Greathouse

(8/2021) The U.S. is a nation of opportunity. In fact, we are a nation of systemic opportunity. Freedom of opportunity has been in our DNA since the founding. We can never get enough of "We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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 Declaration of Independence wasn’t put together by a bunch of old men, but by young visionaries – many in their teens and early twenties – who saw a bright, promising future for America.

Perhaps, I’m especially sensitized to the precious freedom of opportunity because I write books of fiction and history of the old American west. I write about "second chancers" braving a harsh environment to put their often-failed pasts behind them while seeking new opportunities. Those who succeeded were distinguished by their endurance, moral character, and hard work; not by gender or race or tribal allegiance. It wasn’t easy, but most stayed the course. I recall the words attributed to a cousin back around the 1930s when he sold his ranch in Texas, "I lost a sense of freedom never to be found anywhere else on earth." Such value placed on freedom. Those settlers took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’, because they fully grasped the opportunities America afforded them. America offered them the freedom to succeed. Gender, race, or religion mattered not. It’s truly no different today. Opportunities abound.

Somebody is likely thinking, "What about the slaves?" Well, historian and philosopher Alexis De Tocqueville noted, "The greatness of America lies not in being enlightened more than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults." Eventually, former slaves had opportunity.

It’s high time we stopped giving credence to the extreme elements of the socio-political scale that would claim otherwise. Let’s also keep in mind that extremists are a minority…a loud, vociferous, minority. They are too easily swayed by powerful people who use them to their own perverse advantage. The extremists shout bumper-sticker slogans of no substance. As an example. we are not a racist nation. Nor is our nation sexist, homophobic, or a litany of other pejorative, victim-targeted "ists," "isms," and so on; none of which represent the fabric of America. Let’s consider black education and entrepreneurship.

In Robert Woodward book Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers, John Sibley Butler, a professor at University of Texas, describes the "black bourgeoisie" defined as third generation college matriculators who never inhabited ghettoes but rather helped create businesses and even towns through their own entrepreneurial initiatives. There are far more success stories of black Americans than of the failures brought on by the agenda-driven do-gooders, the hustlers, and the villains that sucked them into a welfare system that destroyed their self-esteem, their hopes for the future. Many found opportunity, climbed out of the urban plantations, and found success in life, career, and business.

Hustlers? The vocal minorities that would divide us into oppressors versus oppressed are fully dependent for their very livelihoods on maintaining as much divisiveness as possible. They maintain cults of victimhood. Yes, they actually earn their livings from hustling it. Villains? The real villains in America aren’t black people. They aren’t white people. They aren’t Asian people. They aren’t Latinos. They aren’t women. They aren’t gays. They are the radical so-called "journalists," "teachers," and "professors" who do nothing but sow division among the American people. To our discredit we allow these useful idiots to indoctrinate us with their dangerous and destructive ideologies at every turn. We dare not lower ourselves to their level and let them win on experience. After all, they are not nearly so intelligent as they would have us believe, especially as evidenced by their utter disregard for the opportunities for success in our nation.

Over the past half dozen decades, America seems to have been headed down an ever-slipperier moral decline. Some might say it began with banning prayer in public schools and removing the Ten Commandments from public places under guise of protecting the First Amendment to our Constitution. The state dares not establish a national religion. Some might say it began with various sectarians seeking societal perfection; utopias, if you will. That begged the question: your utopia or my utopia? Seems that even a moralism couched in non-religious logic begs for some moral basis, a moral bedrock. The result of such absence of moral foundation is chaos, demagoguery, existential threats to our very rights to freedom of opportunity.

Oh, and it’s critically important to note here that our Declaration of Independence referred to natural unalienable rights granted by our Creator, not some mechanistic temporal rights granted by the government. The Preamble to our Constitution states, "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The Declaration and Constitution were not drawn up out of thin air but draw upon the history and experience, success and failure, and wise counsel of governments gone before. And notably, our founding documents describe us as free individuals, as Americans with equal and exceptional opportunity, not as the mediocre tribes the globalists would have us be. And they protect us from governmental over-reach.

There’s hope. A key tenet of Christianity is to forgive. That doesn’t abridge punishment, but it opens the door to healing the body and soul of the nation. We needn’t be a "Judeo-Christian" nation to adopt the very tenets of morality and ethics as couched in that faith. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love thy neighbor as thy self. These imply that you would seek to do good unto other folks and that you love and respect yourself. Seem worthy enough to me.

It is said that at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Ben Franklin was asked by a lady, "Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin replied, "A republic . . . if you can keep it." Our Constitution created a limited representative republic. A republic is different from a democracy. In a democracy, the majority can directly make laws, while in a republic, elected representatives make laws. Pray we can keep our republic.

Enough with negative, unexceptional, apologetic images of the United States. The only true "systemic" element in our culture is "systemic opportunity." Opportunities for an abundantly successful life abound for anyone who chooses to grasp them. Enough with victimhood mongering, racist ranting, homophobic posturing, oppressor versus oppressed, misogynistic sexism, and the like.

Folks who truly wish America to endure as a free nation of great opportunity must get involved in government at all levels, must speak out frequently and forcefully in public venues, must hold to high moral and ethical standards, and must seize opportunities to place themselves in positions to act for the common good. Let’s join in fostering a positive America, an exceptional nation abounding in opportunities thanks to the freedoms announced in our Declaration, guaranteed in our Constitution, and built solidly upon the bedrock of an enduringly moral way of life. We are indeed exceptional among the nations.

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