For over two Centuries, America has been the beacon of light leading to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Immigrants from around the globe followed that beacon to our shores. Many brought little more than the clothes on their back. Some came with wealth that could be quadrupled by investing in a robust economy. Others came simply to join relatives who had preceded them here. All of them came to enjoy the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that their homeland failed to offer.
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However, there was a hidden value in the American Way of Life that had been taken for granted. In fact, it was once so transparent that few knew it was the thread that held the other three elements of American Independence together. It was that thread that emboldened pioneers and the hope that kept us from panic during the first global Pandemic in 1918. That same thread preserved us from despair through WW1 and the Great Depression that followed too soon after.
Although beginning to fray from this constant stress, it held us together throughout WW2 and the Cold War that followed. But our failure to acknowledge and maintain it led to a total unraveling in the second half of the 20th Century.
Perhaps it was the loss of competent leadership in both politics and business, but by the time we became ensnared in the Vietnam War, that thread had deteriorated beyond repair. Life came to mean survival of the fittest. Liberty became the right to thrive at the expense of others. And the Pursuit of Happiness became a never-ending shopping spree.
That thread was the love that we extended to each other. D H Lawrence portrayed the severing of that thread this way:
