The City Upon a Hill

I've just finished reading the final chapter of In Search of Identity, the autobiography of Anwar el-Sadat, the third President of Egypt. Sadat was a hero, a patriot and a statesman who valiantly served both his country and the cause of peace until his assassination in October of 1981. Any student of foreign policy or of American action in an increasingly dangerous and complicated world should take the time to read his memoirs. Reading his account of the 1970s, I couldn't help but think about the promise of the United States, and how often we fall short of the course set by the nature of our better angels.

When Sadat reopened the Suez Canal to international navigation in the summer of 1975, he was unable to do it by himself. The Egyptian Navy did not have the capacity to clear the canal for commercial transport. In order to reopen the canal, Sadat had to ask for help from the United States, a country that Egypt had been on cold, hostile terms with for nearly thirty years. In that moment, Sadat writes, "The United States stood by me and showed her real face, scarred though it was by the Vietnam War." Within 24 hours, the USS Iwo Jima, a helicopter carrier, arrived in the Suez Canal and began clearing it under the supervision of the Egyptian Navy.

In the past eight years, the face of America has become even more covered with scars. Yet if you look deeply into the mirror, past the damage done by mistakes and ill intentions, the true character of American hope still exists, as vibrant and youthful as it has ever been. The soul of America has always been in her eyes.

This promise, this potential, this vision of an America that is the summation of all that is best within us was shown by President Obama in his recent speech in Cairo. Perhaps the New York Times put it best:

When President Bush spoke in the months and years after Sept. 11, 2001, we often — chillingly — felt as if we didn’t recognize the United States. His vision was of a country racked with fear and bent on vengeance, one that imposed invidious choices on the world and on itself. When we listened to President Obama speak in Cairo on Thursday, we recognized the United States.

Every single thing in this world carries with it equal capacity to save the world or to destroy it. Too often, we forget our capacity for both. We can still be "as a city upon a hill", a shining example for all those who dare to look.