America

1968

America is a nation in search of itself.  It has been a land of seekers from its very founding.  The first people to settle America sought adventure or a new start in life, but whatever their reason for coming to the new world, most were out of step with the old.  They were either bored with the life they had known or they were seeking freedom of belief.  Having come with old world traditions, they soon developed their own life style.  In time many colonists began to feel disconnected from the mother country.  When they declared their final independence, the leaders of the colonies took the old and new and formed a new government upon a constitution of loosely framed law.  This framework was so loose, the nation has been defining it ever since.

This government has operated for two hundred and is no longer new.  The adventure of discovery is finished.  The frontier is gone.  The land is filled.  Is America still a land of seekers?

It is.  The loose framework of laws still needs definition and it is constantly challenged to resolve new problems.  Conquering the frontier caused new difficulties, for America is still a land of seekers, who can no longer run off to the wilderness to start a new life.  They must find it where they are.  Once America sought to grow and find a place in the world.  It has its place now. 

Today America must define its position to its self and to the other nations.  It seeks the answer of what it should mean to the world and the meaning it finds may be more important than anything that went before.  The old search for expansion has ended; meanwhile, the seeking of place goes on.