kennedy: the american story is all about individual aspiration and achievement. this is une land of absolutely limited opportunity. we can become whoever we want to be. we can go wherever we want to go. it's pa of our national myth indeed, no society can cohere over time it doesn't possess some myths that people believe in common. ' rice: that's what holds us together, this great american creed that it doesn'e t matter where you caom. it matters where you're going. it starts with us as americans regathering ourselves around values, experiences, stories, if you will, about what it is to be an american.

announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting as part of "american graduate: let's make it happen," a nationwide public media education initiative. support for this program was provided by emerson collective, genstar capital, carnegie corporation of new york, the william and flora hewlett foundation, the once upon a timfoundati, todd wagner foundation, the mckenziisfoundation of san fra, nicolas berggruen charitable foundation, sand hill foundationand califor.

[bicycle bell dings] girl: i feel like my dad is definitely on iof the strongest forcmy life that has been pushing me to educate myself and take school very seriously. he came to america from poland without any money in his pocket and without knowing any englis so, when i think about it, it, like, blows my mind. ag it was such a cous thing. rice: david and i have been friends for a number of years on the stanford faculty, and we found ourselves one day talking about america. as i would travel around the world, the one thing that always attracted people to the united states of america was this idea that it didn't matter where you came from, it mattered where you were going. you could come from humble circumstances.

co yod do great things. and david, pulitzer-prize winning historian, found that it was this core of the essence of america e that intsted him, too. a as you can see atlance, condi and i are two different people. we're not the same gender or the same race. we don't worship in the same church. we don't vote in the same political party, but-- th othe that... but what we have in common is a shared sense of the fragility of our common purpose se and common enterp as a people. so, that's what we hope we can discuss s th all of you here trning. i hear more and more people say, you know, we're coming apart. how do we keep this tremendous narrative, this ideal going forward, en and cong with all of the new challenges th it's meeting? you have to understand what the common enterprise is. you have to understand what the common aspiration is.

and, um, i thive we've... we'lost sight of it. [train rumbling] [train whistle blows] joe: my grandparents on both sides, when they came over from the old count, they all wanted to improve life for their children, but it was tough. [indistinct voices] [man whistles] my grandpa, grandpa klosek died from black lung. he worked in the coal mines. my mom said he would be, you know, spitting up black, as he was on his deathbed. [car horn honking] my grandpa maddon also began in the coal mines, then he establisha plumbing,

and my dad and all my uncles became plumbers. me, growing up, i did not want tbe a plumber, and my dad knew that. my dad would come home from work. he'd be tack from working in aer or pulling out some ashes or whatever, literally black. his hands would be black. you could just see the whites of his eyes. he'd grab the glove, and we'd go play catch. he knew how hard it was for my grandpop. he knew how hard it was for him and my uncles. he did not want it to be that hard for me. [music playing] peanuts! peanuts! man: it has been 107 years since the cubs won the world series. woman: the right manager could make all the difference. he's got the magic, he's popular with the players, and he likes to mix it up. second man: well, hope always springs eternal in wrigleyville. [cheering] s joe: it'l about building relationships.

oi as you get to that pnt where everybody feelsrespec, now we can really get somewhere. [cering] joe buck: here's the 0-1. this is going to be a tough play. bryant! the cubs win the world series! [loud cheering] [music playing] nk joe: i tou have to be pretty self-confident. if you don't have good self-esteem, all kind of things intimidate you. hazleton has been challenged in that regar

there's no question about it. the city itself, the structure itself has lost i confidence. you're a coal cracker. you're from northeastern pennsylvania. ' t's just your identity. there's been no real economic boom around here since coal. some days, i don't even recognize the place. there's no streetlights, there's potholes everywhere, and all you hear about is all the tension in the city. w. get out! get out! illegal immigration is destroying cities ch as hazleton. reporter: hazleton mayor louis barletta n defending the illegal immigration relief act passed by the city council. the city ordinance would fine landlords le who rent to ills or employers who hire them.

man: somebody say, "oh, you're mexican. ea you have from here." but what about the discrimination? because you're white and we are brown? man: this ordinance has inver been about discrion. this ordinance has been about checking with the federal government to see if a person is lawfully present in the united states. barletta: it's standing up for american workers, for united states workers, and for taxpayers. joe: everything has been magnified, and primarily the negative side was being magnified. he 's so much misinformation going on here. you've got to quell the madness at some point. you've got to put your foot on its neck. the hazleton integration project is trying to help bring together the cultures within our city, the hispanic and anglo cultures.

we want to create a situation where the kids come together, whether it be academically, maybe a boxing class, take a yoga class, debate club, whatever. umpire: play ball! te we want to these baseball leagues. we want to get kids playing on the same teams, getting to know one another. you want to make kids friends fast? put them on the same team with the same common goal, and i promise you, color er skin, language bar what you like to eat, that goes away just like that. ma them interact with one another, because, i'll tell you what, the parents are gonna follow, man. they've got to come pick theup. they've got to come watch them play. and then at some point, you've got to start talking to one another. and "i like them. i lik l this guy. i like thy. i mean, they're good people." er [kids cheg] 2, 3! hazleton! joe: the moment we trust each other, at hat point, we can build something.

[marching band playing] these people wanted to be in our hometown, and now it's their hometown, hazleton. you have this group that wan to come in and raise families and go to church and attend schools and create jobs. and i really thought if we did not accept the group that was moving in, the city was gonna die. and the thing that really baffles me that i find kind of ironic is the same group of people cat are against our hispa brothers and sisters coming in had grandparents that came over from theld country to hazleton at some point, en and hey came over, they were made fun of for their language. they didn't speak the language. they dressed funny. their music was weird. what about that food? their kids are dirty.

all that same stuff was...was... their grandparents had to endure those same thoughts. rice: we have to constantly remind ourselves that we are a country of iigrants. i hear some things that are said about immigrants-- you know, "they come here "because they want to take advantage he of the..ocial welfare system." really? the united states doesn't really have an extensive social welfare system. if you wanted to do that, o you'd meplace else probably, not here. people don't come here because they want to be on welfare. no, they want to come here because they really do believe that they can make life better for themselves and for the next generation. american national identity, from the earliest commentators on it, has been all about freedom

and aspiration and clearing the ground for achievement and the fulfillment of dreams. and we're hesitant to blame any factors eyond ourselves for the failures that we inevitably encounter. there are instances in american history in where thatet, that psychology actually is quite palpable, d, in fact, what happened to my father in the 1930s is a prime example. my father grew up ki in a w-class irish american family, and he worked during world war i in an artillery shell factory in buffalo, new york. this was a very well paying job, so he'd saved a lot of money. so, when the war was over, in the early 1920s, he headed west to make his fortune... and eventually found his way to a start-up mining operation

in wcehington state at a palled trinity. there was a lot of promise that this place was going to be r a ma copper-mining facility. but what intervened was the great depression of the 1930s. the mine went bankrupt, and he lost everything. my father felt that he had let himself down, he had let his friends and family down d who he had encoura to invest in this place. it broke his life in two, i think, that episode. his sisters later would tell me that as a young man, he was one of the sunniest, most energetic, upbeat people. he was just... he was not a sunny, upbeat person en i knew him. now, at the height of the great depression, there were 13 million people unemployed in the united states,

of 25% the workforce unemployed. and any reasonable observer might have said, "hey, wait a minute. he re was a systemic breakdown of some kind. the economy broke down." but the almost universal psycho gical responseth men had to going unemployed was to feel guilty and ashamed and personally responsible for their situation. the promise of this society is not always fulfilled, and among the things we need to pay attention to is the gap between the promise and the reality and why it is that some of our fellow citizens t, have not, cano not, maybe will not ever realize u what i wipologetically call the promise of america. good morning. how are you? oh, i hear that. swe lost that hour ofep.

good morning. woman: bye, baby. bye. for me, what it means to be an american is that , get to enjoy freedom but with freedom comes great responsibility. it's cold. i've begh principal at lindberow for 6 years, and i can't think of anyplace else i would rather be. the kids that we get to work with a wonderful, and i want to make sure that they fe loved and that we're giving them the best education they can give. so i'm living my american dream. that's...that's to be an educator. hey, gregory. how long are we gonna let this grow? gregory: uh... until it stops growing. oh, fod ver, then? have a gy. in the mornings, i think it's important thathe'm visible, that parents see me,

and even if it's just a wave every morning, that's, you know, just one step in building our community. [school bell rings] [students speaking instinctly] woman: today we are going to talk about the early native american tribes in oahoma. we're gonna make a map similar to the one w thatmade with our regions. you guys remember when we did that? ok. we're gonna make one similar to that, only it's going to be about the native american tribes, the early ones. deidre: oklahoma is a land of native americans. i'm creek indian. this is located in creek nation, and, uh, so it's... it's fun to get to see the native americans that come through the door. while we are a melting pot, we can't forget where we've come from, t and we all nelearn about each other's history. the connection between my familhistory

and where i'm at today is i'm a fifth-generation educator. my dad was a math teacher, and my grandmother was a teacher also. even my great-great-grandfather, moty tiger was his name, . he was also a teach so, education, i guess, has always been in my blood. the message was that education is the key to success and to better yoursel but in the instance of my grandmother, her family also happened to have good luck. they were able to at least maintain some land in indian territory.

they weren't forced off of that land like a lot of native americans were. and then their lanhappened , and that financed a lot of their education. so they weren't forced to live in poverty like a lot of native americans were. what i'm doing now is kind of like paying it forward. what does it mean whenever you hear the word "american"? just the word "american." what do you think that means? well, i think it means freedom. ok. what does it mean to be free? i think freedom means they cannot boss you around. they can't boss you around. ok.

deidre: when i look at my childhood, i was very, very fortunate. and a lot of my kids, their families have to rely on welfare. ki a lot of my ds, one or both parents are incarcerated. i've got a lot of kids in foster care. but we want to encourage our students and let them know that they can go on, they can do whatever they want. i teacher: what domean to you, nadir, whenever you hear the word "american"? nadir: um, that you're free to decide who you want to become. he te you are free to decide who you want to become. you're absolutely right. as long as you're willing to put in the work, you can be it. ok? happy. bright. deidre: we have some students now that have been to a different elementary school every two month

ex...spens... their families go wherever the jobs are, or they go where rent is the cheapest. a locoof times, when the kme in, they've not at the reading they should be. it's our job to get them there. but that takes moio than just a 9-monthd. we just play it like they're gonna be here for the long haul, and some of the kids we see come back, and some we never see again. have a good one, too. i still love you. but i refuse to believe that tbese kids won't be er off in their future for what we're doi now. .. um, i.i don't want to think that...that they can't be. [school bell rings]

rice: i can't de that the data show that the united states is becoming less mobile increasingly, if you're in that housing project, you're not gonna get out of that housinproject. and that's a tremendous danger to who we are, who we profess to be, and who wh want to be, because you are a country that's based on an aspirational notion-- it doesn't matter where you came from, it matters where you're going-- it had better be true, cause it's the only thing that's holding you together. [singing and clapping] woman: ♪ir i see freedom in the♪ choir: ♪ see freedom in the air ♪ ♪ up over my head ♪ up over my head

♪ i see freedom in the air ♪ ce there are always going to be gaps between a country's aspiration and the reality. and so we're always fighting to overcome that gap. we're always trying i get closer to what tal is. woman: ♪ up over my head choir: ♪ up over my head ♪ o i see justice in the air ♪ ♪ i see justice in the air♪ man: while teaching children about world religion, a teacher asked her students to bring a symbol their faith to class. they did that. the first child said, "i'm muslim, and this is my prayer rug." the second child said, "i'm jewish, and this is my family menorah." the third child said, "i'm a member the black church, m"and this is a copy family's gospel songbook,

and i also brought a copy of the civil rights act of 1964." me and so it goes inca. rice: i think everyone has to come to terms at some point with your home and how it's shaped you. congregation: thanks be to god. growing up as a little girl in segregated birmingham, alabama, where you couldn't even go to a restaurant, couldn't go to a movie theater. in that birmingham, alabama, we were still beg told, "america is yours, and you can sueed here." and as i think back,

under the pressures of jim crow segregation, withsill of these negative als around their kids about how america did noaccept them, that's quite a trick that those parents pull off. and it almost always came down to if you could be educated, then you had a kind of armor against prejudice, you had a kind of armor against barriers to opportunity. and so, for black american families, education became the holy grail. [rooster crows] john wesley rice senior, my grandfather, was a sharecropper's son in greene county, alabama. his mother was a ugeed slave who had ta him how to read, go to college. and he decides he's gonn so he saved up his cotton,

and he went off to lman in tuscaloosa, paid for his first year of college, got through it, and then they said, "so, how are you gonna pay for your second year?" he said, "well, i'm out of cotton." and they said, "well, you're out of luck." he says to them, "so, how are those boys going to college?" they said, "well, what you have to understand is, "they have laat's called a schip, "and if you wanted to be a presbyterian minister, then you could have a scholarship, too." and my grandfather says, "you know, at s exactly what i had in mind." and my family has been presbyterian-- and by the way, college-educated--ever since. that access to education was gonna change everything, m, and not just for but for generations to come. d anddaddy rice foundeurches in mississippi and louisiana and alabama, and then it was his pattern to found not just a church, but a school.

my grandfather would go door to door and say to parents, "you know, your daughter is smart, o "and sheht to go to college, and so i'm gonna get her a scholarship." for granddaddy rice, that was the promise of our country, that you can be and do anything you want, others behind.leave faith matters, family matters... community matters. that was my family'trad. [indistinct voices] i think that an experience that made home very salient to me is a conversation i had wi i remember remarking that home, or collins, mississippi, was just a very static place.

it felt like change didn't happen. and then my grandfather just pointed out the fact that he was born the great depression, he did not finish high school, his kifinished high school, and i am going to, arguably, one of the best colleges in the nation and the world and that his ene life lifetime has s so much change. when i think of home, i think of lots amai think of the smell of my mom's cooking, and i think of my brother. um, but i also think of a lot of struggles that happened in my home and a lot of negative experiences that built me but also broke me down. i think that whatse you all have just expr is that it is crucial to remember who you are, where you've come from, the community that put into you, and to always return to that. maybe america and beinamerican is about bringing where we're from to where we're going and making that connection.

junot: as a nation, you don't know yourself ' because of what youre doing in the heart of your power. wh you knowyou are and what your values really are ou by how they plain your farthest, farthest edges. u you know, i grewp at the margin of our society. i emigrated in 1974 from the dominican republic. i had neve ueven seen a map of tted states. i had never seen any photographs. t but, you kno best part about being a kid is that you don't know any better. i assumed everybody, when they were 6 years old,

was pulled up out of their home country an placed in another place where you have to learn english. well, when i think about what it should mean to be american, i think of my librarian, mrs. crowell, a woman who couldn'h speak a word of span and yet took this kid who couldn't speak a word of english and made sure that i understood my privileges in the library. mrs. crowell believed deep in her heart that one day someone would walk into her library, some little first-, second-, or third-grader, who would be me who in the would not love the public library? it was fair as hell. every single person could take out as many books as the other person, and it didn't matter that i was poor, it didn'cematter that i had an . bl the puic library as a concept, this is as american as jazz, man. as a nation, we need institutions,

public institutions, that reinforce our civic society. and when all is said and done, b if we wie remembered for anything as a nation, hopefully we'll be remembered for that. ewnot: my community inersey was very, very interesting. i just ran into a friend of mine who i grew up with, and he said it best-- we were like some strange united nations experiment. i was dominican. my upstairs neighbor s african american. my best friend was cuban. my other best friend was egyptian i would stick my head out, and there would be dozens of kids. it looked like adults had been raptured to another world, fe because it jus like we ran the place. to make friends with people across borders and across continents, bti just feel a great o it,

because those early childhood years structured a lot of my thinking and a lot of my art. the stuff that we did when we were kids, os i think that the experiences have continued to reap dividends for me as a person, you know, my ability connect, my ability to build collectives, my ability to open my space up so that there's a lot of people to come in. s for example, 12 would all band together, pack, you know, some chips, some water, and would say, "hey, let's go on a trek to cheesequake state park." "well, where's cheesequake state park?" "well, we've got to cut through the landfill, "we've got to find our way over t morgan river, "so we've got to actually cross the turnpike on foot, "and then we've got to cut through the forest "until we get to the swimming hole.

we'll ne back hopefully byhtfall." i mean yi'm doing this atrs old, because, you know, for all of the stuff that we lacked, um, for all of the marginalization, there was a kind of collective culture, this aspiration that we can come together in a profound diversity and we will make things happen. you knowt a lot of scholars pot that one of the things that's occurred in the last 40 years is that we've become more alone, that we've become more atomized, more separated from sort of the...the sort of nourishment of collectives, of groups, of organizations. the nation as a whole seems very addted to this concept of individuality, the concept of, you know,

"i've dragged myself up by my bootstraps." and yet most of the forces that act against americans, most of the sort of cruelties that americans experience require collective action to correct them, to combat them. that claim that no nation is better at unleashing individual potential than the united states... i don't know.just don't. i guess i don't buy it. this is a country, after all, that incarcerates, you know, a huge part of its population. and i guess if incarcerating our young people for minor infractions is part leashing their individual potential, then i guess i got my terms wrong. this is a country that spends so little on education

for the poor,'s risible. and i think that titen the idea of patr in this country tes to be, um, turning away, not looking, denying. but i think that there's no greater love of a naon than to look for the places wherr we're not doing st job. this is the reason why the margins are important, because the people who are at the margins es can bear wito the reality of our nation, can bear witness to what our future needs to be. for someone to tell me our nation is good doesn't meantnything if it's oming from the people who are most, um, being, in some ways, rubbed out by that myth of being good.

kennedy: all peoples want to believe well about themselves. societies that get infected with very bad images of themselves ar i thin pretty sad societies. and the probleiarea we've entereo now in our own time is that we've lost faith in our society in all kinds of institutions, and especially in the leadership of institutions-- government, the church, boy scouts, professional athletics, the media, i mean, you name your institution, and we think less well of it today than ouparents did. this loss of belief is one of the things that has diluted the feeling, just the feeling of citizenship. la [musicng] [crossing bell dinging] tegan: i'll be driving somewhere, and if i see

a tattered flag, it drives me crazy. like, twant to write a letttarget and be like, "your flag looks terrible. do something about it." like, i really... and that's kind of ingrained. i got in a heated debate with som wearing the flthe wy idiot the other day, wearing it as a cape. we got in an argument in a bar because he was stepping all over it, and i ripped it off of him, and i e s just like, "what u doing, man?" he's like, "supporting america." and i'm like, "by stomping all over the flag?" like you said, its like people bled for this. i can picture their faces in my head. like, i can gyou a list of names. i always like to say that i could go on a road trip around america, and i'd have a place to stay in every state because of being in the military. i love thasense of community. no matter what, we know that we have that common bond of service. i was 21 when i joined the marine corps. [airplane passing] my grandpa was in the army.

my dad had been in the army the whole time i was growing up. my little brother joined the marine corps right out high school, and...i got... i got the bug. there's a picture that somebody took of me waiting for our plane to load to go oversees, , and i have this hu you know, smile on my face. i'm like, "girl, why did you take a rabbit with you to iraq?" deep down inside, i was probably pretty nervous knowing that i was getting out and doing something that... the heart of what is important to my mily, io serving the n during a time of war.

well, i feel like people from rural areas know what hard work and dedication is, p and we'atriotic, and, you know, it's... it's common knowledge inthat people that live ural areas, for the most part, are not millionaires, unless you have a vacation home. ' i think that'what allures a lot of people to join the military. it's a great benefit to serve your country and be able to afford putting food in the mouths of your children. this one. look at that. which one is that? that's actually the day i got back from basic training in 1983. oh, you look so young. d, um...erin. erin. growing up, you know we didn't...

we didn't have a lot of money. we always felt like the underdog, kicking and fighting. we had to work for ever hing that we had. and the military was our career path. i mean, it's not like we're the macarthuror anything. you know, bottom line, you volunteer to go out and be or...or be a bullet launcher, one of the two. prefer launche yeah, prefer launcher, um... obviously, the consequences are...are grave, but... or ould be grave, but you... well, just do it. [sirens] tegan: we all were around when 9-11 happened. we wnee all united that oay. you know, some people may have been in texas. some people may have been in new york city. some people may have been in wisconsin.

om i was a soe in high school when that happened. and it... i really feel like it tugged at the patriotic heart strings of people like myself and like my brother and my dad and my grandpa especially, who was too old to serve, but, gosyodarn it, he wanted toknow. [music playing] [sirens] when the nation is under attack, you serve. nd [shoutingtinctly] it'ppnot glamorous being ort staff for an attack helicopter squadron, but i knw i had a purpose.

you owed it to those famil members. you owed it to those people that we lost. you know, some people are like, "we shouldn't have gotten involved this. "we shouldn't have done this. we shouldn't have went overseas. look at the cost of human life." it's like, yes, i gethat. i've got it but remember how yofelt that day. you don't join the military to be in one political party or not. you are a marine, and you can't pick political sides. but, you know, i live in madison, wisconsin. people love to protest. i go out on my lunch break, and people are out there with signs and horns and bells and whistles and just a-hootin' and hollerin' and making all this racket, yelling at the governor on the capitol, and...

i thhek it's cool thatdo that. [drum beating and indistinct voices] i think the american ideal of citizenship is about service to others, o either th military service or volunteerism or advocacy, and it's refreshing toee people yi pang attention to the government, because they bring to light something that other people may have not been paying attention to. and i think that's... that's re ly interesting. [tambourine jingling and band playing] and even if i don't necessarily agree with their opinions, i still appreciate them because that freedom is the fabric of my uniform. on you put that unifor to protect their right to do that. that's what it means to serve the country.

you know, it's like, ok, yep, they're exercising their freedom of speech. my job, you know, is done. on weekend in a month, i go back to my reserve unit. it's the same people i deploy with, the same people i went to war with, and here, i'm like thw,veteran in class, you k and if you ask military questions, t-i'm like the subjtter expert on everything military apparently. but when i go back to my unit that one weekend a month, um, k'm just sergeant leg the platoon sergeant. we all have the same mission, the same job. we rely on each other very equally. and i think taking that back here is that we could rely on everyone here in this room, and there isn't just us here. idere's also people ou this room that we can rely on, others who have the same ideals. we are all americans. yeah, we all have our different identities, but together, i think we kind of want to raise the nation up. and, you know, we're not doing this alone.

[b d squawking] woman: all right, candidates. if you all please raise your right hand... and repeat after me. e i hereby de on oath... all: i hereby declare on oath... woman: that i will support and defend... all: that i will support and defend... woman: the constitution and laws... all: the constitution and laws... woman: of the united states of america... all: of the united states of america... woman: against all enemies... eric: naturalization ceremonies, when immigrants become citizens of the united states, they are among the most moving things you could possibly attend. [applause]

when you get to see a parade of people who cve chosen to make thntry their own... from all of these other parts of the world, and you watch them have that moment of claiming... it gives you new eyes to see what it is that we take for granted around us. [applause and laughter] today this nation has welcomed 20 new citizens into the fold of american life. and as a second-generation american, all my life i have wondered what woud it be like to be lira those of you who emd to this country, to make that choice and to make that leap? but also, what would it be like for all of us to have an opportunity together

to celebrate the meaning and the coent of our citizenship? my parents are immigrants. they moved all across a war-torn china during the sino-japanese war and the second world war, and from taiwan in the fifties came to the united states. they both pursued higher education here, and so i grew up in poughkeepsie, new york, in the hudson valley. so it was this real americanuh, dream. it's especially heightened when you are second-generation, and you really can visualize what iwould have been like had you been born in the other place. [singing indistinctly] where would i be had my parents not made it to the united states?

we sit here oflking just a couple eeks after the anniversary of the massacre on tiananmen square. i think about what it would have been like a to have been gh-schooler in beijing and what choice i would have made. [chanting indistinctly] ha i the good fortune to be born american. i can express my political opinions, ge and i'm not gonnt just scooped up by cops in the middle of the night. [protesters chanting] and that has really fueled my sense of purpose. e entirety of my life after college eis been in public work, er working in government or working to promo political engagemen i want for us, as citizens, to be as prepared and powerful and engaged and literate and ready to participate and contribute as we possibly can. [applause]

what we're talking about here in the civic context is how we treat one another, how we live in community, how we see ourselves as woven into a fabric io of relhip and obligation. and that notion is what our broken, fissured, fragmented body politic today needs deeply. is citizen university nonprofit that works to foster a stronger culture of citizenship in the united states. we convene leaders from the left and the right to come together and learn together and solve problems together. woman: we teed to make sure that people that we put a office represent usnd our issues. and if they don't, how can we... how can we bring that to light? eric: we have people working on immigration reform me who have nevepeople from the veterans world, who have never met people whviare thinking about cieducation in a classroom. and so what citizen university does

is simply to stitch this ecosystem together. eric: should we just set up around here? eric, voice-over: but there's another set of things that citizen university does that are much more about the culture. me? so, it's fun. yeah, all of us. we stand there, an we do an oath together. it's taking an oath. hello. how are you? i'm eric liu. because we have a great diversity in american life, as you have to k yourself, what is er that holds us togeth to and what holds uther is a creed, and that creed, to me, is not just a bunch of legalistic principles. that creed operates at the gut and the heart at least as much as at the level of the head, and it is truly a civic religion. and so one of the things that i feel like it's really important for to do as americans is just to renew that creed through rituals, simple rituals.

so, this is a process we have called sworn again america, and the idea is, if you've ever been to a ceremony where immigrants become citizens and they've got to swear an oath, we thought, all, what if we all hhance to actually pause for a minute and just swear this oath together? and so i'm just gonna ask you to raise your right hand. i pledge to be an active american... e all: i ple be an active american... eric: to show up for others... all: to show up for hers... eric: to govern myself... all: to govern myself... eric: to help govern my community. all: to help govern my community. : erici pledge to serve and to push my country... all: i pledge to serve and push my country... eric: when right to be kept right... all: when right to be kept right... eric: when wrong to be set right. all: when wroto be set . eric: wherever my ancestors and i were born... to boy: wherever my anc and i were born... eric: i claim america. all: i claim america. eric: congratulations, folks. you are now sworngain. thank you very much. enjoy your visit. yes. [cheering and applause]

: ericah! ha ha! how did that feel for you all to do that? n it felt woderful! did it? ha ha ha! that really touched me. doesn'it? eric: it's not just the oath. it's more about renewing our sense that we have a civic inheritance here and a set of values that are worth nurturing. that's the spark of americanness that i hope does not get subdued en in this age of cynicism about what's possible in politics. woman: eric will explain it to you. everybody, get in. because when you stop showing up, you stop participating, you cede the field to the few who would like perfectly to command the field, and they usually don't have your interests in mind. in [birds ca part of what makes the united states exciting is that, uh, it is a place which there's always a little bit of an edge.

you are going to encounter people who are uike yourself ethnically, economically, politically, this extraordinary coming-together of people from everywhere, from every circutance, from every religion. what infrastructure is it that is needed to support that? what set of responsibilities and obligations support that? what relationship to what the government does and what individuals do? it's a pretty complex story. whenever i talk to people about our common aspirational narrative as being what holds us together, um, they say, "yeah, that's what i think, too." to be american is to accept thcall of aspiration. to be american is to break with the idea that you are a prisoner of your circumstances, and i think to be american is also ccept

that it's not just about you. you really do need to care about the clective enterprise, too. and i think the more we lose sight of that in an era of racial and ethnic fragmentation d political polarizationd incom, the more things that push us away from that sense of "we're all in this together, that we have a responsibility and a duty to build and sustain healthy communities, not just healthy individual lives, the more trouble we have going forward. [indistinct voices] deidre: i believe, as a nation, we are not living up to our ideals. we need to be concerned with every kid in the nation, not just our own. [kids laughing and clapping] gg joe: the t hope for our country-- that we don't forget where we came from,

but also, at the same time, i'm looking forward to being absorbed into the new traditions or the new rituals or the new whatevers that are brought in by the different cultures. in tegan: the mares haven't gotten anywhere doing things by themselves. and i think it would really behoove the american public to know your neighbors and to build that community. junot: america is something we aspire to. america is a dream. we tend to practice a lot of classism, a lot of racism, and yet the dream of an america is still alive, a dream where we can be on each other's sides. eric: america has nothing to hold itself together but a few ideas, a creed. wa anothe to put that is all we have to hold us together is a story,

and i think nee thing we have leard, whether from the right or the left, is don't expect some archangel to come down andescend and give us that story. f maddy:could ask every person in america, i e ink it would be to heryone have a conversation like this, y where people genuint their identities and their concerns about the nation on the table, because i don't think any other time i've felt more american and so frustrated with what it means to be american, bualso so proud. [music playing]

announcer: this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting as part of "american graduate: t's make it happen, a nationwide public media education initiative. support for this program was provided by emerson collective, genstar capital, carnegie corporation of new york, the william and flora hewlett fountion, the once upon a time foundation, todd agnethe mckenzie foundation of san francisco, nicolas berggruen charitable foundation, sand hill fo hdation, and californmanities. ♪ you're watching pbs.

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