This Shining City...

The reference is Biblical: Matthew chapter 5, verse 14:

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

(From the King James version.)

In this time when sometimes it seems that everyone in the world is convinced America is the greatest villain in history, we forget that this verse is appropriate.

See, America occupies a position brought about by the wit, dedication, determination, and conviction of those generations before ours - one from which we can be seen by everyone, every country and every citizen - in all the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

This means that we have great power - our ability to act as an example to the rest of the world is unparallelled simply by virtue of our visibility - but our responsibilities are equally great.

Why? Or, as some of you may ask - why us?

I will tell you: because we're here.

Nothing more. This generation didn't get us where we are today; even if you have an inflated sense of your personal worth, you know that you weren't even alive when the decisions were made that propelled us into our current position. This generation - my generation - inherited its position as citizens of the city on a hill from our parents, and theirs; from the Founding Fathers, the Framers of the Constitution and the fifty-six brave warriors who signed the Declaration of Independence; and every citizen of the United States who came before us.

Some of you may think that our lack of responsibility for our position removes from us any need to act to maintain it, and this is true. We don't have a responsibility to maintain our position at the top of the hill. What we do have is a responsibility - just because we're here, to maintain stewardship of the city itself.

America does not have, inherent in its physical location on the North American landmass, any spark of righteousness not available to every nation in the world. We have no more natural resources than Russia does; we have not one, but two coastlines to defend, as well as two enormously long terrestrial borders; in terms of landmass, we're actually at a military disadvantage, because the sheer scale of our territory renders it impossible to police completely. What we have, the crucial difference that sets us apart and makes us unique, is the standard upon which our government is based.

The Constitution is a document unique in the history of the world. Almost every nation has a constitution of some sort, but in all the world, ours is unique, because unlike any other nation, ours is based upon the consent of the governed. The constitution of every other nation in the world begins by saying "the government gives you the following rights:"

Ours is the lone exception. Ours begins by saying that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inherent in our nature as sentient beings, and says "no government can take them from you." It says "we, the people, allow the government to do the following things." It says "the government can only do what we give it permission to do."

This is what makes America the shining city on a hill. We are free. We have the freedom to do anything we wish that does not harm others; we even have the right to say we don't. We have the right to act in ways of the greatest good, and the right to call ourselves a huge, reeking evil; the right to defend each other to the death, to preserve our liberties, and in the same breath to persecute those who choose to do so; we have freedom of speech, so that we can say anything we like, even if it is to say that we should be destroyed.

But a city on a hill cannot be hid. Because of our position, our visibility to the rest of the world, we are an example to them, whether we wish it or no. The world watches us, sometimes in hatred, sometimes in love, sometimes in schemes, sometimes in brotherhood; but it watches us, whether we like it or not. And such a position of visibility carries responsibilities.

As citizens of the city on a hill, you see, everything we do, whether good or evil, right or wrong, is seen by the world. Everything we say gets heard; everything we watch is noticed; every action we take, no matter how minor, is scrutinized endlessly by the rest of the world, not necessarily because we warrant such scrutiny, but merely because we're there: we are the shining city on a hill, regardless of who or what put us there.

And as stewards of the shining city, we have the responsibility, just because we're there, to keep the walls and buildings untarnished; to keep the streets clean; to keep the order and to defend it against those who would undermine its walls, cut its roots, and tear down its heart.

The city itself does not care what name you choose to call yourself, or how you define yourself. I do not choose a political party to join because I do not care to be labeled, nor do I care to have decisions dictated by dogma, rather than by my responsibility as a steward of the shining city. You may choose to do so; this is what freedom is, you see: the right to make choices. I am not defined by my race; again, if you choose to use your race, whatever it may be, to define yourself, go right ahead. You may label yourself by religion, or wealth; by sexual urges, or age, or whether or not you own land; you may label yourself in any way you choose, because you have that freedom - because you live in the shining city on a hill. In all the world, only the walls of that city defend your rights to label yourself as you will; in all the world, only the soldiers of that city will endure the abuse and revulsion of its citizens and continue to defend their right to act in such a disgraceful way; in all the world, only one place has as its bedrock your right to do whatever you want.

This is why you, and I, and all of us, are stewards of the city; this is why we have a responsibility to the city, and its maintenance, and this is why our sacred honor is invested in its walls, whether we want it there or not: because the walls of the city and its defenders are all that stand between us, and those of us who would remove those freedoms forever.

But there's another level yet: we have responsibilities not only to ourselves, and to the city itself; we have responsibilities to every oppressed person in the world, every person who has been discriminated against with bullets, rather than hurtful remarks; every person who has been tortured with knives and blood, rather than loud noises; every person who has been threatened with death for practicing their religion, rather than told not to be so loud about it; every person who has been shot at, imprisoned, or killed because of who they sleep with, rather than told that their chosen sex act is "icky."

That responsibility is simple: to deserve the city.

Because if the city falls - if the solitary place in all the world where there is hope is brought down, then our failure does not merely impact our own lives, but those of everyone in the world. Democracy is an experiment tried only once before in human history on such a grand scale, and Rome fell when its citizens lost sight of the fact that they were Romans first, and began to use the government to feed and care for their tribes instead.

We cannot allow such a disaster to happen again.

America is more than a loose collection of tribes; we are, and must be, a nation. The hideous evils of tyranny rule the overwhelming majority of the world, and even in those nations not governed by tyrants, the assumption is still that the government is the purpose of the nation, and not its guardian. Only here, ONLY here, is the government the steward of its citizens.

Right now, this idea is under attack, besieged in all directions, by foes within and without; those who wish us to become a police state, like Soviet Russia was, and China is; those who wish us to openly dissolve into anarchy, like the Sudan; those who wish us "free" from the need to consider the rights of others at all, like Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Those who hate, and fear, the responsibilities inherent in a life in the shining city disguise their intentions in a myriad of ways. They claim that our freedoms should be curtailed "temporarily" in the interests of "security." To paraphrase better writers than myself, a man whose highest priority is his own safety deserves neither saftey nor freedom, and can only be made and kept free through the efforts and blood of better men than himself.

The enemies of liberty try to disguise their intentions by claiming that freedom is the freedom to do anything, regardless of others; that freedom has failed, because they do not understand it; that a campaign to free the oppressed in other nations is a failure to leave others to their self-government; they claim that righeousness consists of doing "the greatest good for the greatest number," without understanding that they themselves would not be here were that the case.

Freeing the oppressed is not a failure: it is, ultimately, the highest moral responsibility of those who live in the city on a hill, for if salvation comes not from those who have achieved it, what source for it can be found? Tyrants never free the oppressed. As citizens of the most visible nation in the world, and stewards of its purpose and ideals, it is our solemn duty, to which our lives, our honor, our dedication, conviction, effort, and blood must be devoted: to prove, by our actions, the righteousness of freedom, and its meaning; to free the oppressed, protect those who request it, defend the rights inherent in any sentient being, and guard the city, its walls and heart, against any enemy who comes, for failure in this, our charge as its citizens, is a crime of the highest order, against every living being.

This shining city on a hill must stand; it must be, as it has been in the past, a beacon of hope for those not within its walls; its gates must remain open to anyone with the courage and strength to reach it; its defenders must be looked upon with honor, for their lives are all that stands between it and disaster; and most importantly, when the oppressed see the hordes before our walls, they must know, as generations have known before them, that the shining city will endure, and shelter them if they can reach it.

As stewards of Liberty, we have responsibilities. Those responsibilities may have chosen us, rather than the other way around, but they are still there, and failing in our stewardship is an utterly unacceptable moral evil. We have a duty to ourselves, our forebears, and our nation to end the divisiveness, end the notion of tribes, end the bickering, and forge our destiny with renewed will, unified heart, and singularity of purpose. God does not care what name you call him, or if you call him at all; your bedroom habits are of interest only to those in your bedroom, and your opinions are, and should be, acknowledged as such, rather than presented as facts. My opinions are here for you to see - but regardless of opinion, mine or yours, we cannot let our nation fail in its purpose because we are too lazy to care for it properly. You may not agree with the leaders we've chosen; you have the freedom to change those leaders. You may not agree with the laws those leaders have passed; vote against the leaders and their laws. You may not agree with the places our soldiers go, but never, ever despise our soldiers for defending your liberty, or someone else's. Doing so is a dishonor I fear the city cannot bear for long; even the bravest, strongest soldiers in the world have to have a home to go to, or they have no reason to fight, and if ever our soldiers fail, the walls will fall, and the shining city on a hill will crumble, perhaps never to be rebuilt.