Conclusion

A Declaration of Interdependence

In 1776, a group of revolutionaries drafted a document that would forever alter the course of history. They wrote,

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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

These words still ring true today. Can there be any doubt that our current government has been “destructive of these ends,” greatly limiting the rights of millions of people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and obscuring our fundamental equality? Based on the principles established by Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and their colleagues, it is thus the “right of the people” to “alter” that form of government. To do so, we will need to be just as audacious as the “Founding Fathers” were when they drafted their statement of rebellion. However, instead of making a Declaration of Independence as they did in the late eighteenth century, what is needed to address the severe challenges that we face today is a Declaration of Interdependence.

In the United States, we often like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. In reality, though, we are far more interdependent than we are independent. Our lives are all deeply interconnected within a web of both obvious and not-so-obvious threads. For example, if you asked me about my children and what makes them the unique individuals that they are—and I look deeply enough—I see that they are really a combination of countless influences from innumerable individuals. They are a product of genetic material passed down from generations, what my wife and I have instilled in them, what they learn from our friends and family members, the influence of their friends and teachers, interactions with people they encounter out in the world, and all of the books, movies, TV shows, and other media that they ingest, which are produced by thousands of people around the world. (And of course all those people have their own sets of influencers, who have their own sets of influencers, and out it spirals from there.) What often determines the outcome of all those factors are the public policies that shape my children’s lives and those of all the people they encounter or are influenced by on a daily basis. There are countless education, health care, labor, environmental, economic, child care, housing, voting, media, and criminal justice policies that intersect with their lives, either directly (such as through the impact of budgetary decisions on their schools) or indirectly (such as if one of their classmates’ parents is incarcerated or deported and how that trauma subsequently affects them, the rest of the class, their teacher, and so on). If I look closely, I can see how all these factors play a role in their actions from day to day. I can also appreciate how delicate this cocktail of influences can be, and how even the smallest of shifts in inputs can produce enormous differences in outputs.

The same is true when viewing the impact of policies at the broader, systemic level. We all need to get to the point where we can clearly see that education inequities, mass criminalization, anti-immigrant policies, and other racial justice issues don’t just harm those who attend the underresourced schools, suffer the effects of overpolicing, and face the prospect of being deported. If we examine our own lives closely, we will all find evidence of harm caused by the reverberations from these unjust systems. On the flip side, we also all need to recognize that addressing those issues doesn’t just help those people of color who have the burden of systemic racism lifted off them. We all stand to benefit when our neighbors are able to live higher-quality lives and the rot of injustice is purged from our public systems.

There is immense power that comes from acknowledging this interdependence. Because when we start to see that my health, safety, and happiness are intimately connected to your health, safety, and happiness, the possibilities for what we can accomplish together begin to increase exponentially. If we can go beyond that and reach the point where we care enough about each other that we are able to recognize that whatever we want for ourselves, we should want for all people, then true freedom within the United States, and true greatness for the United States, start to become real possibilities.

Those are ultimately the prizes at stake here: American freedom and American greatness. While there is little evidence to suggest that we are, as we often claim, the greatest or freest country in the world, we could be. We could build the most advanced, inclusive, and equitable democracy the world has ever seen. We could build a country that is truly deserving of the love, devotion, and patriotism of all its residents and that people around the world would respect and even revere. America could be that “shining city on a hill,” but it is ultimately on us to make it worthy of that distinction. Each of us is going to have to decide what we want our country to be and how we want to live. Do we want our public policies centered on creating opportunities for a small number of people to amass extraordinary wealth at the expense of everyone else, or do we want to use our resources to address the essential needs of individuals, families, and communities? Do we want to continue to allow our lives to be devalued and our voices to go unheard on the decisions that most affect our lives, or do we want to create a new, more humane world in which all people have a right to self-determination? Do we want to live our lives in a never-ending competition where we are always trying to get a leg up on other people, or do we want to find another way that involves working together for our mutual benefit? Do we want our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to have to address the same issues of systemic racism that we face now, or do we finally want to address our inequities so that all people can be on equal footing and race will never again determine a person’s chances of living a good life?

These are our choices. True American freedom and greatness are achievable, but to attain them, many more of us will have to recognize our fundamental interdependence and embrace our shared humanity. That is how we will ensure that racism is never again a source of profit. And that is how David will beat Goliath. Or more accurately, how the hundreds of thousands of Davids there are for every Goliath will be able to realize and actualize their true strength so that they can prevail and build a better, stronger, and more just America in the process.