Throughout the nation’s history many have brought up the idea of the American Spirit. An attitude and thought process where the impossible becomes possible and ordinary civilians rise to be heroes. It is this attitude that has sent men to the moon and created a global superpower that rivals the greats. Throughout these stories of greatness, there is one idea that stands out, the idea of ‘we’ not me. The idea that ‘we’ as Americans outweigh the me in the individual.
Look at the political quote from Former President Joe Biden, “We are Americans, second to none, and we own the finish line.” Throughout this quote President Biden doesn’t say I or me, he says we. This is the American Spirit: When we announce to the world that we don’t care if they think we are insane or downright stupid. We are still the United States; a nation where someone can dream big and achieve big, where we have slipped the bonds of the Earth and touched the face of God.
The idea of ‘we’ can be seen in the document that proclaimed America. “We the people,” it reads as the introduction, with the first three words in big and bold lettering. It could have said, we the representatives or we the leaders, but in we the people it makes no distinction between the founding fathers in the room and the common folk of the colonies. There was no separation in our declaration between the men who put their names on the paper and the people of the 13 colonies who were preparing to rise and fight for it.
In 1962 at Rice University, President John F. Kennedy spoke the words, “We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” Kennedy highlighted the ‘we’ in his speech as a rally cry not just for those in attendance, but for America. We choose the hard over the convenient, because that is how we soar into the history books. People don’t get accolades and medals for doing the easy and the convenient, they get plaques for daring, they get speeches because they were told it was impossible and responded with “watch me.” That is America.
“We’re coming over.” These lyrics come from the WW1 song “Over There.” In these few words, it also highlights the idea of ‘we.’ It does not say ‘I’ am coming over. It emphasizes that we Americans will travel across the Atlantic to stick it to the Kaiser and the central powers. This turned the war from just a European conflict into a conflict for America. Another line that keeps the idea of we is “and we won’t come back till it’s over, over there.” This paints that we as Americans will not falter nor waver and we won’t let the Reich cast dark shadows across Europe. That we as Americans have a duty to stop such countries from disrupting and destroying the free world.
Through the idea of ‘we,’ we have led America to sorrowful times. ‘We’ as the defenders against communism lead to Vietnam. The idea that Americans had to spearhead the conflict to contain communism and that we as a nation of the free must be willing to stomach the losses. Though it was also the ‘we’ mentality that helped us recover. We rose higher after Vietnam because we learned. Eventually our conflict against communist powers ended in success, as communism fell away across the world. We stood high as the USSR fell; we were there for the new independent countries ready and willing to show them the power of we.
The American Spirit will never have the word ‘I’ or ‘me’ in it because it simply does not fit. In a nation with political polarization, we must remember that even the mighty bald eagle needs both wings to soar high. Above all, the Spirit that has defined America will always be for we the daring, we the brave, we the willing and we the people of the United States of America.