I first discovered The Princess Bride while I attended college. I channel surfed during an evening or weekend and ran into the very beginning of the movie. The dialogue between the boy and grandfather intrigued me. It has been a genuine pleasure to continue to watch it and quote it over the years; they released the film in 1987. In fact, I’ll even poke fun at friends who claim that it is overrated.
A few years ago, a friend and I attended an afternoon showing at the theater. We sat next to a young couple, a little too young. Overwhelmed by curiosity, I turned to them and asked, “Were you even alive when this movie was released?” They grinned and responded with, “No, but we were each introduced to the movie by our parents.” Yes, it is that kind of movie.
Few movies are as quotable as this film. I may start with a quote only to have someone else finish it.
Vizzini: He didn’t fall? Inconceivable.
Iñigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
In fact, precisely this has happened to me… many times.
That quote lingers in my head
Of course, when I hear people misuse a word, it grates on me. I hear the words in my head, “I do not think it means what you think it means.” I think the misuse of a complex word or one with a highly nuanced meaning is excusable. However, there’s been mass misuse of a very common word that is like fingernails on a chalkboard. That word is ‘again’:
adverb
- once more; another time; anew; in addition:
Simply put, the word implies that it ‘once was’. In other words, it was once in that state. They print the words “Make America Great Again” in brightly colored red hats with the implication that the United States was once great, and it is no longer. That is truly perplexing, allow me to elaborate.
The United States was founded on immigration
Unless you’re an Indigenous person, you’re an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants. This is not rocket science. The people who were originally here were not Caucasian; let’s gloss over the fact that the immigrants violently took over the land. In this spirit, we founded our nation on diversity, both religious and cultural diversity. While I know that some may wince at this characterization, but we’re a mutt country. Here’s a clue, if your genealogy ties you back to a place other than the United States (like Sweden, Germany, England, etc.), then you’re the product of immigrants. We can split hairs as to how many generations before you may be considered an ‘American’.
In fact, many of the monikers for the United States implies diversity and immigration. The term the melting pot implies not only many cultures, but also the melding of said cultures to become its own distinct culture. Similarly, the term land of opportunity implies that hard work is equitably rewarded; it stresses that we value fairness.
In this light, the United States aspires to be the embodiment of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It started with the Constitution where we lay out our aspiration on the first sentence:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…
The words “more perfect” allude to a state of perfection not truly existing, that we can only aspire to get closer. The first amendment grants us freedom of religion, which is to say, religious diversity.
In that light, when we think about both diversity and equity, can indeed reflect on what this American greatness would look like?
If we were great, when were we great?
If we insist on using that MAGA phrase, along with the implication of ‘again’, then the only conclusion is that we were once great, and we are no longer. The only logical follow up question is… Precisely when was it that we were great? I mean, literally… give me a snapshot in time, a year, when we were great. Let’s look upon our history, were we great when:
- We systematically and violently forced the Indigenouse people off the land during the birth of our nation.
- We harvested people off their homes in order to become our slaves.
- We incarcerated our Japanese citizens for simply being Japanese.
- We denied women and black citizens the right to vote.
- We passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, after these Chinese immigrants built our Transcontinental railroad.
- We incarcerated the Lovings for the crime of getting married.
- We established poll taxes to discourage poor people from voting.
- We kept segregated bathrooms and schools.
- We denied loving couples from getting married.
Were we great during any of those times? Or are we willfully forgetting those?
“Those things don’t disqualify us from being great”
Don’t they? If we can’t identify a time when we didn’t have serious civil rights violations, we can’t ‘be great’ during that time. Seriously, can you honestly claim that America was great when we decided to throw many Japanese residents, most of them US citizens, into prison camps? When any of the above occurred? Is that where our moral compass has taken us?
Allow me to frame it differently, and this is not rocket science. By using the words ‘make’ and ‘again’ in that phrase, you assert that:
- It was once great.
- It is not great now.
This perplexes me. What in our country is worse today than, say (picking one)… disallowing our black and women citizens the right to vote, the way that it once was.
“America was great during that time”
After evaluating all of the above, you still come to the conclusion that American was great. I personally find this incomprehensible, since the evidence is pretty clear. However, I can understand some of the rationalizations, and maybe this describes your particular reasoning:
- You have selective a memory. Much like you may have fond memories of high school (or college) and retain these romantic impressions of that time; you suppress instances of exclusion by cliques or bullying. These negative elements were there the entire time, you have chosen to remember the pleasant portions of it.
- You simply don’t have a complete picture of what American life has been. You live your life with a certain set of experiences, and you assume that those experiences are comparable with everyone’s. This is wrong, of course. To naïvely believe that your experience simply extends to everyone is grossly egocentric.
- You understand that these other problems occurred, but you simply don’t care. They don’t specifically impact you, so you’ll willfully roll those back in order to put America back the way that you believe is better for you and worse for others.
However, this is not what we stand for. Our country was founded on the idea that all of us are created equal. In order for our country to be great, it needs to be great for everyone, not just a selected few. It has yet to be uniformly great for everyone.
If you continue to wear that red hat, at least update it to make it accurate… MAGAFOD or Make America Great Again For Our Demographic.