We are Americans. We believe in 10 Values — aspirational norms that we strive to make real, like the 7 deadly sins push us away from things which are wrong.
They are deceptively complicated, seemingly normal things, but they underlie the core ideals of our nation, our culture, and our goals as people.
1. Liberty & Human Rights
This is the Foundation of our nation — the Liberalism idea that “all people are endowed by their creator with inalienble human rights”. Those human rights are here. The are meant as a bright Line in the Sand, over which we will not cross.
2. Democracy & Self Rule
Another Liberalism derived Foundation, that the Government is in service to the People, and from them it derives its power, instead of a single person who is the only one that can fix something — we called that Kingship, which is tyranny, and what we founded this nation to defy and oppose.
3. Equality & Equity
That no one is better than anyone else by any measure, and that we are not merely equal, but that we fight for equity — a place where everyone has much the same thing.
4. Unity & Diversity
These two go together because Unity is not based on how we are different, but how we are all Americans, and Americans are all different, and it is from that difference, that diversity, that we are made stronger.
5. Cooperation & Magnanimity
We pride ourselves on our ability to work with others and to find the compromise and be gracious and generous to others — be it next door or on the opposite side of the world.
6. Knowledge & Considered Thinking
We hold knowledge — truth, science, and facts gathered together as expertise — as essential. “A well informed public is essential to democracy.” Knowledge is power, and the tempering for that power is considered thinking — to study and know the impact and purpose of a decision. Our legislation is not supposed to be ideological, but rather based in knowledge and expertise for what is best, in order to improve the lives of all Americans.
7. Independence & Individualism
We are, each of us, free agents, a collective of parts that act as a whole when we turn our Unity towards a goal. This is the weakness in our Unity, and the strength in our Division — we belong to many groups and may segments, and what unites us is that we are all Americans — a group of individuals where the effort of one person can make a difference for both others and themselves. This also applies to our ideal of Privacy — as individuals, we control our own lives, which are wholly ours, and not someone else’s to dictate or insert themselves into.
8. Self-Knowledge & Self-Improvement
We seek to know ourselves and through that knowledge, seek to improve our lives and our place in the world. We value the freedom (liberty) to do this, and the Independence to do it on our own terms.
9. Law & Justice
Our nation is subject to the Rule of Law, another Liberalism Foundation, where the courts are part of the three prong system of government involving those who decide, those who craft, and those who enforce Law in pursuit of Justice. Law is meant to reach Justice, and to do so in a way that is blind to the gender, the race, the disability, the orientation, the creed and religion of those being judged. We seek fairness, as a value, recognizing that life is not fair, and so it is up to us, as Americans, to be fair ourselves.
10. Openness & Honesty
We value being open — our privacy is on our terms, and we value inviting others into it. Secrecy is seen as dishonesty, as closing off, and introduces formality, which Americans hate because of its pretense. We see opennness as honesty — which we hold as a key aspect of who we are as a people. We recognize that honesty is not truthfulness — but we oppose deception.