With a substantial fraction of the country supporting the Make America Great Again movement, I’ve been thinking about American greatness. I believe that a major component of greatness has been our nation’s arc of improvement — a continual striving to be better. The realization of the evil of slavery and its abolishment; the recognition of industrialization’s unintended consequences and the passing of child labor laws; the understanding of the cost of monopolies and the subsequent anti-trust legislation; the unfairness of disenfranchisement and women achieving the right to vote; the suppression of minorities and the resulting civil rights legislation; and the dangers of pollution and environmental protection regulations.

Now, however, we’re seeing denial of any flaw in our history, and censorship of any acknowledgement or teaching of anything other than American exceptionalism. How can we appreciate America’s greatness without understanding the arc of improvement that underlies our striving to become greater? How can we expect future generations to continue this striving without being taught about it?

Those denying and censoring seem to be confusing greatness with perfection. America has never been perfect. Its greatness derives from those who recognize the imperfections and do something about them. Given that our history has been (for the most part) an arc of improvement, trying to re-create past “greatness,” instead of looking ahead, is counterproductive. We should look for examples in the past to guide us but not relive it.

Louis Metzger
Scarborough