Alexis Coe asked Is America Boiling Alive in the Melting Pot? The better question, we think, is whether the melting pot is the best metaphor for our country.
Imagine you’re attending a neighborhood party, and you bring your favorite dish to share. Now imagine the host throwing each contributed dish into one big melting pot. It would taste awful, and you’d miss out on some pretty incredible dishes. And, if everyone was told to bring the exact same dish, cooked in exactly the same way, it would be pretty boring.
Instead, imagine America more like a potluck, where everyone brings their own distinct and unique dishes to the table, and those contributions make the feast taste better. Coe rightly points out that the Founders’ vision was never about creating a nation of sameness, but about people of different backgrounds embracing a common purpose.
The founders set the table in the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. Everyone is invited, and everyone has a seat. We each bring our own contribution, our own identity — and we don’t try to boil down our distinctions or our deepest commitments. When we each show up with our unique contributions to share, that’s called pluralism. And it’s exactly what the founders served up and offer each of us today.
Mary Ellen Giess and Amber Hacker are the Managing Directors of Interfaith America.
