Marin Voice: America can still strive to be a moral compass in the world

Getting your

Trinity Audioplayer ready...I’m proud to be a human. It’s a “back to basics” decision.

I used to be proud to be an American, but I feel my country has let me down and abandoned our wonderful relationship. It feels like the disillusionment of a happy marriage shattered by a partner’s betrayal with a close friend.

As a young boy, I believed what I said when I recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the national anthem. My belief in America deepened as I immersed myself in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation, which became integral to my identity.

I was America, and America was me.

Lately, I have sensed a vicious disengagement from the America I once revered. The aggressive tactics used against immigrant communities; the dismantling of essential federal institutions and the U.S. Agency for International Development; the pardoning of those who stormed and defiled the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; President Donald Trump’s apparent disregard for the law; his impulsive military actions against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers; the Greenland hoax; the Canadian takeover threat; the freezing of federal funds; and his proposed changes to birthright citizenship all represent significant betrayals of the American values I hold dear.

Additionally, the relentless economic pressures of daily life; the growing domestic and global inequalities affecting an increasing number of Americans; and the gradual erosion of the quality of life associated with the American Dream are deeply troubling.

However, what troubles me most is the rhetoric that permeates our national discourse at the highest levels of government leadership — the vitriol, demeaning language, false equivalences, exclusionary practices, outright lies and fearmongering about immigrants, crime and minorities. None of it appears to be supported by evidence.

This downward trajectory into what I consider serious moral depravity is disappointingly brutal and inhumane, reminiscent of a darker time before the Axial Age, which spanned the eighth to the third century B.C.E.

At that time, humans evolved from a primordial, barbaric existence to noble attempts at becoming civilized, as broad changes in religious and philosophical thought emerged across diverse locations and began to serve as guiding principles, shared values, and standards of individual conduct, marking humanity’s journey toward true greatness and global peace.

Yet, when these fundamental values no longer underpin American ideals, we might need to look back a few millennia, to the beginning of the first Axial Age, and kick-start the Second Axial Age.

We could honor and restore the shared principles that have united humanity for thousands of years — from the Christian Bible, from Ahimsa in Indian religions (famously championed by Mahatma Gandhi) and from the universal values of compassion, honesty and selfless service promoted across many diverse religious, spiritual and secular belief systems.

Reflecting on humanity’s vast evolution over the past 2.5 million years, we have largely tamed our violent instincts, nurturing a more dignified, generous and forgiving nature.

As I grew older, I learned that truth is a blend of what we know and what we hope to be true and that faith bridges the gap between them.

When I lived and worked all over the world, in places like Switzerland, Bahrain, Curaçao and Myanmar, I realized that the dream I was born into was much like how people around the world imagine America to be.

To many people around the world, America is the magnetic north of the universe’s moral compass.

But America’s moral compass seems to have gone awry.

Today, I find my pride rests in simply being human.

We have significant work ahead to restore America to the greatness we once believed it possessed, in stature, global respect and spirit.

Former President Ronald Regan once said, “America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will no longer be great.”

We have a chance to make things right and be good again. Let’s make humanity great again. The Second Axial Age is at hand.

*Jeffrey Charles Hardy, of Novato, is founder and president of the Care for Peace Foundation nonprofit organization based in Marin. Email [email protected] *