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Don’t Pick On Immigrants: Re-Americanize Everyone
   More than ever today, we need to re-Americanize Americans. We need a movement â for native-born citizens and newcomers alike; adults as much as children â to reanimate our creed, cultivate character for civic life, and foster a culture of strong citizenship. Here’s how to reinforce those three civic pillars.
   Creed. To be Americanized is first to be immersed in the tenets of our democratic faith, expressed in seminal texts, speeches, and stories, from Jeffersonâs time to our own. It means being comfortable telling everyone that what separates this nation from others is that it has a moral identity. When Jefferson proclaimed the truth of human equality âself-evident,â he was not recording a fact; he was asserting one. His saying so helped make it so.
   Culture. Is there a gap between the high ideals of Americaâs civic religion and our very imperfect union? Certainly. But our country is unique in that it measures its worth by naming, and ever narrowing, that gap. To Americanize means to build a culture of song, story, and scene around this fact. The patriotic pageants of yore didnât acknowledge the creative tension between ideals and reality. But we can create new pageants to interpret the old rituals and symbols in contemporary ways, not with irony but with urgency.
   In the end, a new Americanization movement canât just be about listing our privileges and immunities, which we catalog in our laws. It also has to be about reinforcing our duties, which we convey in our habits. Of course, Americanization can be abused and co-opted by those with a narrow, even racist idea of America. Thatâs what happened a century ago during the last push to Americanize immigrants. But the potential for abuse does not absolve us of responsibility for proper use; it only doubles the burden.