The Bradley Project

[L_F_Miranda]

The Bradley Project on America’s National Identity today released its Report, “E Pluribus Unum,”the product of a two-year study involving a number of our nation’s leading academics, public figures, journalists, educators and policy experts. The report examines four aspects of American life crucial to American identity: historical memory, civic education, assimilation, and national security.

The report finds that America is facing an identity crisis and calls for a national dialogue on America’s national identity. According to James Ceaser, professor of politics at the University of Virginia and a participant in the project, America’s understanding and appreciation of diversity is important but must be balanced by an emphasis on what we share. “In selecting the title E Pluribus Unum, the Project embraces the conviction that plurality and unity are not necessarily in tension with one another, but are supporting ideas of the same national experiment,” Ceaser said. “Plurality is only made safe when it when it is grounded in a deeper commitment to national unity. Unity is the precondition for healthy diversity.”

To inform its work, the Bradley Project asked HarrisInteractive to conduct a study on Americans’ views on national identity. The good news is that most U.S. citizens believe there is a unique national identity that defines what it means to be an American. The troubling news is that over six in ten believe our national identity is getting weaker. And “even more troubling is that younger Americans – on whom our continued national identity depends – are less likely than older Americans to believe in a unique national identity or in a unique American culture.” Indeed, 45 percent of 18-34 year old Americans believe that international law should trump the U.S. Constitution in instances where there is a conflict.

According to Professor Ceaser, “The weight of all this evidence suggests mounting confusion about the meaning of American national identity and a loss of commitment to its promotion.”

“The findings from the report are sobering and significant. They raise subjects that are vital to our future, transcend partisanship, and clearly resonate with the American people,” said Rick O’Donnell, Executive Director of the Bradley Project. O’Donnell continued: “Our intention is that the report be the starting point for a national conversation on these important issues. Silent Spring in 1962 started a conversation that brought about significant changes in our environment. A Nation at Risk in 1983 launched an ongoing national conversation that continues to reshape American education. It is in that tradition that we release E Pluribus Unum.”

A number of notable scholars have already joined this conversation and commented on the Bradley Project report.

Walter A. McDougall, Pulitzer-prize winning historian and professor at the University of Pennsylvania calls the report: “An eloquent defense of America’s intellectual, civic, and moral identity that deserves wide circulation, especially among American youth.”

Harry Lewis, former Dean at Harvard College, says of the report: “A stirring reminder that America is more than the union of our differences, and a rational program for preserving the nation by passing American ideals on to the next generation of citizens.”

Amy A. Kass, of the University of Chicago, writes: “The Bradley Project’s report addresses the urgent problem of American identity in our global and multicultural age, and its wise recommendations for promoting civic consciousness and civic understanding couldn’t be more timely or more fitting.”

James C. Rees, Executive Director of Mount Vernon, said: “This report confirms what we experience at Mount Vernon every day – that most Americans know precious little about their own history. George Washington’s face is still familiar to most Americans, because we see it each day on the dollar bill. But when asked about Washington’s character and leadership, which made all the difference in the world to the founding of our nation, the average citizen is rendered speechless.”

The report makes clear that we didn’t get to this point overnight, and that addressing our challenges is a long-term imperative. In addition to its call for an immediate and comprehensive national dialogue on America’s national identity, it recommends:

■ a renewed focus on the teaching of American history,
■ embracing America’s heroes and historic landmarks,
■ affirming the benefits of diversity, but not adopting policies that perpetuate divisions or compromise our national identity,
■ inaugurating an initiative to ensure immigrants learn English, understand democratic institutions, and participate fully in the American way of life,
■ and creating an annual Presidential Award for American Citizenship for students and new citizens who demonstrate exemplary understanding of and commitment to American ideals and institutions.

Professor Ceaser concludes: “The report speaks of a nation ‘founded not on a common ethnicity,’ but ‘on an idea.’ And it argues that ‘a nation founded on an idea starts anew with each generation and with each new group of immigrants.’” “Knowing what America stands for is not a genetic inheritance,” said Ceaser. “It must be learned, both by the next generation and by those who come to this country. From this premise follow many of the recommendations to strengthen the serious study of American principles and the American founding at all levels of education, including college.”

[Suki]

Miranda what do you think of the Bridge Project's goals?

■ a renewed focus on the teaching of American history,

Which version of American history? The sanitized version where a bunch of rich, old European extraction white men who own property and start wars and end wars defines the American identity?

■ embracing America’s heroes and historic landmarks,

Which American heroes are those? Upton Sinclair? Jack London? Mark Twain? Susan B Anthony? Thomas Paine? Or Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan? How about the Native Americans like Crazy Horse or Geronimo? Frederick Douglass or some other 'type' of American Hero? The problem with a lot of these concepts of American Herohood is that it is defined again by mostly a white middle class and elite group of people's definition of what a hero is. Not most working class stiffs and regular people struggling everyday heroically and who have much in common with the BILLIONS of other working people and their conditions and lives lived. That is my perspective. I really do think INTERNATIONAL socialism is defined by identifying not with nationalistic heroes who are of the elite, but the average working and struggling person in many nations. If that is UNAMERICAN---so be it. To me being overly nationalistic and identifying with rich old white men's history is being at heart a FASCIST. Lol!! The USA is paranoid about retaining their heroes because their demographics are changing. Minorities like Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are taking larger sections of mainstream American life and economy and might 'REARRANGE' the definition of becoming and being an American. And does that mean sharing POWER with all these third world non European people? OH, THE HORROR! That is what all that fear is about. Samuel Huntington at least has the guts to put it into words and not try to avoid sidestepping what the nativism is really all about.

■ affirming the benefits of diversity, but not adopting policies that perpetuate divisions or compromise our national identity,

Affirming the benefits of diversity? Adopting policies that perpetuate divisions? That is so much crap. Being broke and so on will create a DIVISION. Not paying your electricity bill and having it cut off because they down sized you recently and losing your house to a bank that came up with faulty terms on the mortgage is what DIVISION is all about. Division exists because CAPITALISM USA styled is based on economic differences in priveleges and in power. As long as those in power refuse to share it with those without much power or economic clout the DIVISIONS will continue ad infinitum. Don't you think so Miranda?

■ inaugurating an initiative to ensure immigrants learn English, understand democratic institutions, and participate fully in the American way of life,

Just see that flick "Fast Food Nation"---LOL? It will let people know why the Immigrants might not know how to participate fully in the American way of life. Lol!

■ and creating an annual Presidential Award for American Citizenship for students and new citizens who demonstrate exemplary understanding of and commitment to American ideals and institutions.

Which award is that? The best brown noser of the bunch award? The one who doesn't question the system award the best? If people want really a committed person to American ideals being like Thoreau and others who CHALLENGE the system is the best example on how to be more American.
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Well....the Bridge Project is full of BS. That is my opinion. Lol. My very American opinion. The Tainos and the West Africans and the old wily Spaniards from the lower rungs of Spanish society that run through my veins and make up a truly new AMERICAN identity thinks so. Ave Maria Miranda. Lo que estos Gringos se inventan a veces me hace reir.

Suki

[L_F_Miranda]

Suki

It is awfully strange that this study comes out now, when:

1- A segment of Puerto Ricans might have felt empowered by the attention they were given during these past primaries.

2-The nomination of the first African American to have a pop at the presidency.

3-The empowerment that many Hispanics may have felt by the attention given to them by Hillary Clinton. They may have felt as if they will finally be respected as equals with, tacos, alcapurías and reggaetón in Spanish.

The white establishment finds itself in a bind, or does it?. Will the nation change to accomodate the new immigrants and the cultural expressions of it's racial minorities?

Are we witnessing a massive change in how things have been done since the founding of the nation?

I don't know....... Its all a toss up.

But as Frank Rich said last Tuesday, we may have witnessed the birth of TWO AMERICA'S.