UNUM AS WELL AS PLURIBUS
UNUM As Well As PLURIBUS istorians and academics have named the 20th century “The American Century”. I would tend to agree since during that time frame the United States of America revealed its economic, academic, political/diplomatic and military might.
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With this overwhelming success, it is easy to forget that it all began as a great experiment seeded in the minds of a small group of visionaries, and born to proclamations such as: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (The Declaration of Independence) and; “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” (The US Constitution) Union, what a grand word! So precious, and so powerful that it was adapted to be part of the Great Seal of the United States whereon one can find inscribed the words “E PLURIBUS UNUM” which is Latin for “out of many one”. It was within the womb of this momentous ideal that the great American experiment came to life; it was unity out of diversity that generated the force behind the metamorphosis of the great American experiment to the American dream. The 20th century became the American Century because the American dream was the dream of every citizen of this great nation. Throughout the century the diverse American social fabric shared the ideals put into words by the founding visionaries, or as Joseph J. Ellis named them, “The Founding Brothers”, and worked tirelessly towards their realization.
The Voice of Freemasonry
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Nicolas V. Papadopoulos, Worshipful Master Justice Columbia Lodge No. 3 But can America carry the torch of triumph in the 21st century? In the dawn of this new millennium, and after a decade of extraordinary prosperity, Americans woke up to events that were a part of every day lives around the world. The awakening, moreover, was sudden, unanticipated and foreign to us here at home. Maybe they should not have been surprised! Globalization has been a part of our vocabulary for some time now. Much of the extraordinary prosperity we enjoyed during the 1990’s was by and large due to globalization. But let’s define this term. Webster’s Dictionary defines globalization as the process of “making something worldwide in scope”. However, Webster’s definition does not prohibit one from elaborating on the concept. Our use of the term today focuses primarily on the economic attributes of such practice. Therefore, one could further define it as the worldwide integration and flow of goods, capital, ideas and people. Given these definitions one can easily reach the conclusion that our country is by virtue of its involvement in the process of globalization, a part and an active participant within the diverse global fabric. Such participation however tends to lower the protective walls of natural and geographic borders, leaving the participants exposed to the economic, political, cultural and social trends that flow around the whole. The events that I referred to earlier were cruel evidence of the realities of globalization and perhaps a preview of the challenges that lie ahead as the US pushes forward towards promoting democracy, free trade and economic integration to the world. But, weren’t Americans confronted with similar challenges at the time when our forefathers were trying to plant the seeds of freedom, independence and economic integration in our country? continued on page 26
