A Vision

"It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force." - Alexandar Hamilton, the Federalist Papers

So, I've been reading selections from the Federalist Papers today as a part of some of my summer research and I was struck by the clear vision that these men had for the nation they were creating. The debated and argued and pounded out document after document and the result was the American form of government. And somehow their crazy ideas still survive on today, although my guess is some of them are probably turning over in their graves at result of 200 years of evolution...oh well.

What does it take for a vision like that to survive? What kind of person does it take to bring forth a vision for the world that so drastically changes it? Several visionaries come to mind...Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi of course. Several presidents. Saintly types like Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day or Brother Roger of the Taize community. That Jesus guy. The prophets. Church patrons...Wesley, Luther, Calvin...Then you know, there's Walt Disney. Sam Walton. And Bill Gates. George W., Oprah, Bono.

There's something about people who have a strong and compelling vision that makes people sit up and listen, even if they disagree. My guess is today sometimes we confuse the "loudness" of a voice with a vision for the future, or even the present. But still, it is a vision that makes us take notice. It is a vision that we shape our lives around.

Americans still celebrate the Founders' vision with each wave of the stars and stripes and the rhetoric of liberty and democracy. And despite the corruption that seems to cloud DC, there are people who take that vision to their hearts and souls and go after it. We might disagree about what that vision says, and yet...we seem to do alright.

These days, the vision for today and tomorrow's American foreign policy is headlinging the news (and of course more my focus that domestic politics). The need for a strong, compelling (okay...and I would argue different) vision for US foriegn policy is urgent in this globalized world. Every once in a while we get a hint of it - depending on which side you come from, maybe it's already there.

In the poltical world, the buzz is all about who will give the stronger vision for Congress in the fall elections? Who will provide the more persuasive vision for bring faith and politics together? Or at least the more persuasive rhetoric...Who is going to bring a vision for a new economic order that does away with poverty as we know it? Where is the vision for a world absent of nuclear weapons and military prowess? Where is the vision for an America that doesn't revolve around shopping and snagging the latest Britney Spears gossip? Or are those visions already there...and we just miss them?

Are we lacking the visionaries or the will to make their visions reality?