Americans around the world celebrated Independence Day on July 4 —the 242nd in US history.
The national holiday marks a huge celebration for the country—with many holding parties or flocking to see firework displays.
I lived in America for over 20 years, and I can say that Independence Day celebrates something really quite unique.
Ask almost any American what’s different about America. Why are American values different, let’s say, than France’s values, Britain’s values, the Philippines’ values, or any other democratic country’s values? Is there anything unique about the United States and, especially, is there anything unique about the American values system?
Well, in fact, it is unique; it’s part of the reason some people talk about what is called American exceptionalism, which means that America’s values have been exceptional.
The uniqueness of the American values system, which has made America unique, has made the American experiment indeed the experiment for humanity. That’s why people who go there assimilate faster than in any other country in the world. I’m not disparaging any other country. There are many wonderful people in every country, and, surely, many miserable people in America.
Nevertheless, the American experiment is unique. If you go to Germany, let’s say, from Turkey where many people have emigrated from, you will find that most Turks remain Turks for generations. They are not considered fellow Germans, fellow Swedes, or fellow Danes nearly as much as somebody from Turkey would be within a week in the United States. The same with foreigners who come to the Philippines. They will always be considered foreigners and not fellow Filipinos no matter how long they stay. Why is this? Why is America unique?
They have a unique values system. It is called the American Trinity. It’s not to be confused in any way with the Christian Trinity, which is a doctrine of Christianity. The American Trinity is the three pillars of American values.
I discovered this uniqueness of America by looking closely at an American coin one day. There it was in front of me, in the palm of my hand, the American values system on a coin. They have all three values on every coin and no other country, as far as I know, has these three: E Pluribus Unum, In God We Trust, and Liberty.
As far as I know, no country in the world has those three values as its essence.
E Pluribus Unum: From many, one; meaning that they don’t care where you are from. They don’t care about your blood origins, your ethnic origins, your racial origins, or your religious origins. They don’t care. From the many, one: You work with them to make America; you are one of them, whatever your age, color, creed, race, sexual preference, or what have you. You can come from Mars for all they care.
In God We Trust. America is founded on the notion that God is the source of values.
That’s why their Declaration of Independence says that we have inalienable rights, but they’re not from humans, kings, government, and they’re not from great thinkers; they are from God. If there is no God, then rights can be taken away by people, because they were given by people. So God is central.
And the third of their American Trinity, is liberty. Now, you will say, “Well, during the French Revolution, they said Liberty, Equality, Fraternity; America is not the only one to enshrine Liberty.” That’s true, they’re not the only ones to enshrine liberty; they’re the only ones to enshrine Liberty, E Pluribis Unum, and In God We Trust. American liberty is not the same as the French understood it because the French understood it in their revolution as with equality. Notice equality is not part of the American Trinity. That’s a European value.
We are all born equal, that’s an American value, but ending up equal, that’s a European value, and, arguably, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern as well. In America, where you end up, that’s your business.
The business in America is to enable you to have the liberty to end up wherever your talents, abilities, and, yes, luck bring you. So they don’t believe in equality as such because the truth is liberty and equality are often in conflict. If you want to enforce equality then you have to tell people how much they can earn, and that is one example of the removal of liberty.
That’s the American Trinity. It has worked for over 200 years. They are fooling with it now though, because a growing number of Americans, especially the young and well-educated, are getting attracted to and are ending up subscribing to the European system, and not the American system of values.
E Pluribis Unum: From many, one; Liberty, not necessarily equality, and in God We Trust—God is the essence and basis of values. That’s the American Trinity.
Happy birthday, America! May you and your values, which benefitted humanity, live long and prosper.
eric.jurado@gmail.com
