Image: Your Little Planet

Sometimes it helps to be pragmatic about building the Common Good, here are 10 points that all Americans can agree on proposed by Ann B. Diamond in a letter to the editor of the NY Times:

1. We deserve a president who tells the truth.

2. Cabinet members should be advocates for their agency.

3. Americans want clean air and water and believe in climate change

4. Every citizen should be encouraged to vote.

5. No child should go to bed hungry.

6. Canada and Mexico are not our enemies.

7. Russia is not our friend, and is trying to undermine democracy

8. The press is not the enemy.

9. The tax cut benefits corporations and the wealthy, not the middle class.

10. Children belong with their parents.

Two years ago, most Americans would have said about these ten points: “These shared ideas are all obvious, what is the big deal?”  It shows how far our ship of state has gone off course.

We have been blown off a common course by a GOP Administration, violating value after value, norm after norm and majority opinion after majority opinion.  No precept can be taken for granted anymore.  If a poll were taken today on these 10 Common Good precepts – 60 to 90 % of all Americans would agree with their core values.

America is founded on principles of justice, equal opportunity and individual freedom balanced with the Common Good.  We all need an understanding of the Common Good or, for example,  we couldn’t drive our cars on public roads if other drivers decided to disobey traffic laws implemented with a simple red light ‘because it’s my right’.  Here the Common Good is clear – you can’t crash into another person’s car.  While, the ten points are not as obvious, their core assumptions about our humanity, Constitution and common history must be our duty to understand, protect and sustain.  Duty to our Common Good values is crucial for them to survive, and provide a beacon of light ahead to keep our ship of state on course.  We are all on deck, not just the captain, sometimes it is good to let him know there are rocks ahead he does not see!