America’s Declaration of Independence opens with words that inspired a new era of world wide democratic political revolutions. No more rule based on divine right, inherited position or pure force. The words:
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.
Centuries later America strives to achieve these ideals, Even with our imperfections and unfinished dreams, individuals and countries around the world are still inspired by America’s past and its future hopes.
Democracy Is Not Easy
,Democracy and its embrace of individual freedom is an ongoing challenge. One of the contributing factors is that the very freedom that encourages debate, dissent and speaking truth to power is used by all points of view. The irony is that some of those view oppose the very values in the opening words of the Declaration.
Changing the status quo, let alone prior error, politically, culturally or economically for America has never been an easy or quick task. Necessary reforms are opposed as threats to existing structures of power and privilege.
This has always been the case. Some divisions can take decades, or generations, to heal or overcome.
Righting the nation’s or an institutions misdirections is never an easy task. But It is also an opportunity for new voices and. new geneations of leaders.
Credit Union’s American Context
The shortcomings between our cooperative ideals and our daily realities are part of the credit union story. This challenge was recognized by the founders of the movement.
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“What is needed is that the American masses shall learn the art of constructive self-government in this machine age — in this age in which life is no longer organized on a small community pattern but in which all Americans are more or less dependent upon what all other Americans are doing.”
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“For unless we can achieve economic democracy, our political democracy must be a sham.” (Source: Sarah McNeil CEO, United Trades FCU)
The challenge of member-owner rights and democratic governance is even more critical in today’s $2.5 trillion cooperative financial sector. Credit union leadership is increasingly exercised as a privilege for the few not a responsibiliy shared with the many member-owners.
The rich and diverse legacy built by generations of loyal members is being swooped up in a merger frenzy driven by personal greed and ambition. Whereas many other leaders have remained dedicated to the unfinished work that still exists in their communities.
Cooperative history is about more than the thousands of volunteer founding stories and their earlier efforts to build a new financial system of worker and community groups. It is also about those with courage to call attention to our moral and economic challenges that could be the focus for cooperative solutions.
Those voices are present today. But is their call to rediscover who we are and who we can be in the present circumstance of business dynamics, social and political turmoil being heard? Will the ever present siren appeals of market opportunity drown out our special founding goal of public purpose?
On this national holiday, he country is again having this critical conversation about our past and future greatness. So too are credit union leaders.
My hope for how we will respond to the present challenges as a movement and as a country is based on two factors: our moral conscience and our history of doing the right thing in time. Our individual duty as citizens and as cooperative adherents is to be a witness to what we believe in our daily acts.
The Call for Grace in Times of Need-A Musical Reminder
Nowhere is this combination of America’s lofty aspirations and human reality more evident than in one of the most well know song based on the poem, America the Beautiful.
The author, Katherine Lee Bates; (1859-1929) was inspired by a trip to Pikes Peak in 1893, Katherine Her poem first appeared in print on July 4, 1895 in The Congregationalist, a weekly journal.
All eight stanzas open with praise for America’s glories (purple mountain majesty) and accomplishments (pilgrim feet). But each verse then closes with a prayer, a call for grace or a plea. America’s beauty is both her past and the promise of a better future.
Here are he versus edited to show first the real glory of America and then the ongoing needs:
O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,. . . God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress, A thoroughfare for freedom beat. . . God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, . . .May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years, . . . God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
Oh beautiful for halcyon skies For amber waves of grain . . . God shed His grace on thee, Till souls wax fair as earth and air And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress. . . God shed His grace on thee, Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought By pilgrims foot and knee!
Oh beautiful for glory-tale Of liberating strife, . . Till selfish gain no longer strain The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years, . . . God shed His grace on thee, Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee!
.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEDv5xG3rxE&t=26s)