Open Letter: The Americans We Admire at Year 250
To: Justice Neil M. Gorsuch
Supreme Court of the United States
1 First St. NE
Washington, D.C. 20543
Dear Justice Gorsuch:
The 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is a perfect time to reflect on what it means to be an American. You have just co-authored a new children’s book, Heroes of 1776: The Story of the Declaration of Independence. To be an American, and to celebrate the Declaration of Independence in true fashion, you believe we should hold to the core ideals of America’s founding—equality, unalienable rights, and self-government. In Reason magazine, you summarized America’s foundation by saying that we are a creedal nation: a nation not founded on a religion, not based on a common culture, but based on those ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
We are a nation where there are no kings or serfs. And to make sure that we did not become ruled by kings, the structural government laid out in the U.S. Constitution, which it is your job to interpret and apply, separates power so it cannot be assumed by one person. You suggested that one can think of the Declaration of Independence as our mission statement and the Constitution as our how-to manual. These enduring principles, and the way that we have generally applied them, are what make us truly Americans.
How have we applied these unique American concepts? President Ronald Reagan, in his farewell address to the nation, quoted a letter he had received that stated a person could move to France but would not become a Frenchman, but anyone from any place could move to America and become an American. President Reagan carried out this thought in his presidential actions: He extended amnesty to 3.2 million undocumented aliens by making them American citizens.
Reagan epitomized true American values in other ways. He is best remembered, as summarized by Max Boot in his renowned book Reagan: His Life and Legend, as always having an optimistic view of America and his refusal to speak ill of other presidents. Reagan would never have put up plaques he wrote himself criticizing many of his predecessors on the wall of the West Wing of the White House—especially plaques besotted with lies, insults, boasting, and, as has been frequently noted, erratic capitalization (like You-know-who).
I grew up listening to President Dwight Eisenhower on the Fourth of July. Eisenhower was famous for his humility and absolute refusal to speak ill of his presidential predecessors. Eisenhower never boasted of his many accomplishments, nor requested monuments erected in his honor—he didn’t have to. We all knew the debt we owed to Ike.
The undersigned is tired of seeing political extremists capture our flag (red, white, and blue—or algae green, as the case may be), the Declaration of Independence, and the very name America as their own. They are not. The America we celebrate looks to the future and looks to global leadership. Let’s celebrate some real Americans.
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Jonas Salk, the son of Russian immigrants, developed our first polio vaccine. He refused to patent the vaccine and thus financially benefit from his discovery because he wanted it to be widely available. Due to his work and the later work by Albert Sabin (a Polish immigrant), polio was eradicated from our daily lives. These are true Americans.
Norman Borlaug, often called the father of the “green revolution”—born in Iowa and descended from Norwegian immigrants—was educated right here at the University of Minnesota. He developed a series of disease-resistant wheat varieties, which staved off famine in a number of countries. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 because, as was noted, the agricultural revolution that he started had saved over 1 billion lives globally. Another true American from immigrant origins.
America has approximately 53 million immigrants in our population. That’s 15% of the nation and a larger number of immigrants than in any other country. America is thus uniquely situated to lead the global community to confront pandemics, global warming, regional conflicts, and nuclear power, as well as to benefit from all the fruits of human intellect. We can do all of this if we adhere to our mission statement and our how-to manual. That is what we should celebrate.
Sincerely yours,
Vance K. Opperman
Proud to be an American
