Many people in the US think of their country as exceptional. Individual freedom and justice is promised to all. But there were too many reports this week about rather dramatic exceptions to those values. Authenticity earns credibility, and without it people will not believe what you say. Here are some of those reports:
*Live coverage of riots in the streets about police brutality in Baltimore, with demonstrations and similar problems in other cities.
*Scenes of “mean-spirited” political polarization in congress and on the campaign trail.
*A TV documentary about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam showing mass killing by US soldiers.
*Video recollections on PBS of North Vietnam rolling into Saigon, the US pulling out, and the South Vietnamese losing their country.
*Reporter recollections of Richard Nixon promising a truce in Vietnam, but then following with an invasion of Cambodia and riots in the US streets.
*Documentary coverage of students at Kent State University being gunned down as they demonstrated their war opposition.
*Reported perceptions that the US makes promises it does not keep and draws “red lines” that it does not enforce.
ISIS beheadings imagined next to those of the US Vietnam My Lai massacre create a rather serious credibility problem for the US. Images of Middle East dictators cracking down on citizens pictured next to those of US police brutality certainly do not reinforce values of freedom and justice.
In a new media 24/7 cable news environment both live and imagined images will either reinforce or contradict promises of “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Authenticity is what earns credibility. And credibility is essential for people to believe what you say about your values.
Larry D. Lauer 
The difference in your comparisons is important to make. We as a society realized as soon as these wrongs were publicized that they were wrong and needed to be condemned. We didn’t celebrate these moral failures; as best we could we prosecuted them. We are a society of humans and we make many mistakes, but we are pragmatists and nearly all the time we try to correct them, to make amends where that is possible.What bothers me about the concept of American exceptionality is the belief that God has somehow ordained us as the new promised land. We have much to offer to the world, we are incredibly generous, but we need to be humble in our approach to other countries.