This fundamental contradiction is at the heart of what it means to live in the United States of America. This, in large part, is what Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project are all about. It is about recognizing a broader reality, rather than simply painting over our past with the eye-catching hues of jingoistic mythology.
If you were a slave in the American south, your own children could be sold off as property. Slaves could not own anything themselves, nor were they allowed to learn how to read or write. They had no liberty, and even their lives were not their own. For census purposes, they were counted as 3/5 of human beings, which is the closest that the Constitution ever came to addressing the issue of slavery until after the Civil War.
Even the Emancipation Proclamation was fundamentally an act of war. It was Lincoln saying, "End the war or I'm going to tell all of your slaves that they aren't your property anymore, and then we'll see what that does for your economy and your ability to fight a war. Let's see you reenact this." I'm paraphrasing, but that's the idea... and I like to imagine Abraham Lincoln with a squeaky voice.
That leaves us with the pursuit of happiness.
To be in pursuit of something is to move in a forward direction, chasing something--in this case, happiness. In that sense, you could say that it is indeed about the journey and not the destination. You could also say that it implies a fundamental need for progress, not just on a personal level, but as a participant in a functioning democracy.
America is supposed to be a place where people can improve the station of their lives through will and hard work. For many people, of course, this has always been a myth, and in this country's most formative years, slaves worked harder than anybody. I dare anyone to tell me otherwise. As we all know, their labor was never paid, nor is it even acknowledged in most history books that examine that period.
A better future is only possible if we are fully aware of the road behind us.
Over the centuries, America has been engaged in the relentless pursuit of a more perfect union, which is an idea that predates the Declaration of Independence. This path is called progress. It leads us forward, toward the realization of the lofty ideals upon which this nation was initially founded.
We are not perfect, but we are steadily getting better. Living in this in-between is precisely what it means to be American. It always has been. Over the years, we have improved incrementally. It started by abandoning outdated traditions in favor of a more pragmatic path forward.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Equal rights, no matter your race or creed. The tired, huddled (or is it hustled?) masses, yearning to be free. It is the unwavering pursuit of these principles that defines the American experiment to ourselves and to the rest of the world.
As Americans, we must work together to make our namesake Dream a reality, to be a country where people of all backgrounds can truly better themselves through their own labor, diligence and imagination.
At the same time, we as a nation must do the same. We must collectively put forth the effort to become a more inclusive and better functioning democracy. We must not abandon the path of progress in favor of distraction politics or anything else that only serves to divide us.
We are the United States of America, and progess means expanding access to voting booths, not restricting it.
When this country was founded, only white, land-owning men could vote. Progress is the path that led us here, just as it must continue to lead us forward in pursuit of a more perfect union.
We can and must do better. Ultimately, our capability for self-improvement defines us as a nation to a far greater degree than the imaginary lines that surround us.
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