In this time of widespread national disruption it certainly is possible to be thinking that we are coming to the end of the road as a nation. Ideologies are clashing, hate seems to be surfacing everywhere, and everything from politics to religion appears totally polarized.,
Basic questions haunt us: Are we fundamentally a country of conservatives or liberals? Do we believe that business success will trickle down and provide opportunity, or that wealth must be shared through benevolence and services? Or have we simply been looking in all the wrong places for our identity as Americans?
Last week I attended a program on jazz and American music at the Chautauqua Institute in northwest New York State. Wynton Marsalis, along with his Jazz at Lincoln Center organization and other friends, presided. I must say it was an incredible experience. Marsalis and all the other musicians and speakers were extremely well prepared, perceptive, creative, and impressively articulate.
By the end of the first day I was convinced that most of us have been looking in all the wrong places for our national identity. The place to look is not in our politics. Nor is it in our free enterprise system. Nor is it in our balanced system of three branches of government. Rather, it is simply in our core ideas, cultural heritage, and arts.
Marsalis and friends did a masterful job of weaving together ideas and quotes from founding fathers, intellectuals, literary heroes, blues singers, jazz artists, theater figures, filmmakers, and those incredible composers of the great “American song book.” Collectively these people were our social and cultural improvisers and integrators.
By week’s end it was virtually impossible to miss the point that we are ultimately a nation of immigrants that successfully blended the down-home sophistication of hard-working people and talented artists with the highbrow intellectual sophistication of an educated elite. Our identity as Americans is simply in the “integration” of their ideas about freedom, their many different cultural traditions, and all of their arts. It is a unique blend indeed. And it is what enables the “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” that we all enjoy.
Larry D. Lauer 
I hope the communications profession provides the needed analysis of the situation facing our nation today in our political world. Our fundamental national beliefs and traditions are being tested and challenged by the world of Trump. I hope the communications profession will provide the critical analysis needed now in order to help us through this difficult political period.
There have been other periods in our history that came a good bit closer to our dividing than the present time. In fact, there was a civil war! What keeps us together is a tacit agreement that we will live by the rule of law. We honor the Constitution and for those who don’t we have a system of justice that we all agree is fair. We are not a nation of blood or race like the Germans or Norwegians. To became an American you have to learn our history, our constitution and agree to live by our laws. So even if we are deeply divided at this point, we do seem to still acknowledge that we will live by the laws as established. I don’t understand why people would vote for Trump, who I believe to be not qualified to even run for president and who represents a real danger to our society. But, I haven’t bought any guns and I do my best to be civil.
I should add that I do not believe we are losing our way as a nation. I believe that is alarmist and a misreading. We have brilliant leadership in the presidency who has shown an incredible ability to think through difficult issues and lead at difficult times. With the election of Hillary in a landslide, the Repubs will hopefully reevaluate what just happened to them and perhaps will go back to being the conservative party with a sensible agenda. That’s a positive view.