The Great Society

  Did you know that America has changed in the field of leadership, values, morals, education, and attention.  We often think of America as The Greatest Nation on Earth or The Great Society, but what about America the Wonderful Nonsense Nation… 

  Many of Americans recently watched the presidential campaign which is rapid growing in popularity within America.  For we the people are looking for the next president (leader) of the free world.  It is always a beautiful privilege to observe the political process and debates in America.  I have always found them entertaining, informative, and intriguing.  But for sake of time and human thought.  I will not waste too much of your precious time on the subject.  I will not in anyway waste your precious energy in trying to persuade or influence you into a political party.  This isn’t the intent for this short blog.  

The purpose for this blog is for readers to see my perspective on the subject.  What a great nation America used to be based on the spirit of America.  What does the spirit mean… I’ll share more details shortly.  But in short — it is about the leadership we desperately need as a society.  It is about spirit, unity, progress, and prosperity of a nations people. 

  This last week America observed the first Republican debate.  The debate began slow in my perspective, but it turned into heated moments of indifferences based on age, experience, and political affiliations.  Rather than major topics or how each individual will systematically address those key issues that are relevant for America.  The audience experienced the blame game.  They experienced the publishing of words.  At the end each candidate was asked to inspire us — the American people.  The audience and the listeners.  In my experience they failed.  However, Vivek G. Ramaswamy almost got the hairs on my aims to stand, but almost only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades.  Above all the candidates didn’t get the opportunity to elaborate their view of a great society. 

Lyndon Johnson wasn’t my favorite candidate or president, but he was a good listener and learner who one said: “Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society were old are use and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only forward the rich society, and the powerful society, but upward to the great society. The great society, rest on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed at our time. But that is just the beginning. The great society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talent. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build, and reflect, not a fear cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of community, but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a place where men can renew connections with nature. It is a place which honor for its own sake, and for what it adds to the understanding of the race. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals, than the quantity of their goods. But most of all, the great society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge, constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny. What is the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor.”  Former President Johnson expressed the words of prosperity, liberty, and opportunity. 

That opportunity comes from making extraordinary sacrifices and decisions toward achieving more for our countrymen.  It is displaying the true meaning of liberty and prosperity through our desired goals and actions.  There isn’t a great society or group of citizens without knowledge.  The knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to enrich themselves in mind, heart, and love.  If we happen to lose sight of those essential qualities, values or principles.  We lose the confidence of a future generation in America. 

  

  Equally important, I have come to genuinely believe we are living in the era of WONDERFUL NONSENSE.  Wonderful Nonsense which is weary of war, learned hopelessness, broken systems of government, political corruption and agendas.  Wonderful Nonsense is where humans can’t decipher their own gender, where crime or violence is justified.  Wonderful Nonsense is where things are immoral, dangerous, and emotionally draining.  Americans have traded their lives toward materials and have threw themselves into fads and crazes rather the connection of building a great society. 

The 2000’s, the decades following 9/11, 2008 Recession, Maui Fire, Covid-19 Lockdowns, inflation, or TikTok brains.  I call this the era of Wonderful Nonsense or Learned Hopelessness. Selected politicians connected by tel-e-vision, social media platforms, radio, calls, and emails, and with more money on their hands than ever before.  Much of the masses have participated in this process toward ignorance which has become the primary distraction of American culture today. 

So, what is to blame… not WHO, but what? 

  In my professional view, we should look more closely at personal and professional relationships.  Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”  Above the words of ‘Aristotle’ who, implied the importance of education with values.  The objective of education is enlightenment or empowerment.  These areas can be achieved only by educating both the mind as well as the heart.  According to Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, and more., educating humans goes much beyond the cognitive aspect of learning.  In order to ensure complete and holistic development, our education should be backed by values or principles.  Such as logic, ethics, love; empathy, compassion, rationality, etc. Values such as humanity, accountability, Integrity, confidence, courage must be imparted as a part of education.  Unfortunately, our society has been destroyed by dishonesty, distractions, and corruption of the mind.  

If we truly want to see a genuine Society.  If we want to feel the American Spirit again, it must be manifested in our country’s history.  Not by hate, anger, frustration, or negativity.  But motivating us collectively, and as individuals toward unity.  We don’t have to look back too far—to 9/11, when America was subject to a sneak kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center.  We all remember the shock, the fear, the anger, the overwhelming, and the negativity.  We don’t have to look back too far—to Pearl Harbor.  A common sense of the American Spirit brought us together against a new enemy that attacked us with the intent of undermining our system of faith, our values, our culture; and our way of life.

Historical leaders and evidence suggests we must rise above negativity.  We mustn’t allow the waiving events of history to define our commonality or our love for a beautiful future.  We should learn more from history on ways to redefine our relationship with one another.  We should learn more from our experiences and historical mistakes.  We should unlearn to relearn the unique qualities of unity, compassion, empathy, and faith.  Negativity will always be around like ignorance, but when a people push for empowerment or enlightenment they rise and stand before the rest of time.  That is what defines a Great Society!! 

With gratitude, 

Coach Frank Sagasta