Zito riffs on the offhand comment by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that America was never great. After sharing a half dozen charming stories of good people doing nice things for each other, she concludes:
Great is an aspiration — a higher elevation to which you constantly try to take yourself and your countrymen.I had that very thought, though she expresses it better than I could. America is far from perfect but most definitely great, especially when compared to everywhere else.
And that greatness resides in our people. It's visible in the volunteer firefighters, the Good Samaritans, the compassionate, the people in this country hidden in plain sight that do the right thing not for glory, but out of a sense of duty.
America has never been perfect for all people, but it never stops striving to be that place taking on our shortcomings with protests, church meetings, policy changes and societal upheavals. It often takes too long, it often has setbacks, but at our core, we fundamentally never stop trying.
There is a reason our ancestors immigrated to this country. It was a land that held a promise of opportunity, broad freedoms, and unoppressive government. That's the reason people still want to come here.
Cuomo is wrong. Had he said America's never been perfect, he would’ve been right. But amid our flaws is plenty of greatness. We do great things every day, and we aspire to do more tomorrow.
At our dinner table on the just-ended cruise, was a retired nurse who puts in many unpaid hours a month saving lives as an EMT on a small Texas towns’ volunteer ambulance service. There are many good people like her who do great things because they are able.
