By Scott Shephard
On a day I think is the most consequential election day of my life I feel obligated to talk about a little Americana. If you have a dollar bill, take it out and look at the side printed in green. Notice the “In God We Trust” above the big “ONE.” The inclusion of that phrase on paper money was approved by Congress in 1957 and was motivated by anti-communist hysteria. (“Commies are godless atheists; we in the USA aren’t”). Incidentally, it is not an accident that the “one nation under God” line was added to the Pledge of Allegiance during the same anti-communist era. I don’t think the Founding Fathers could have ever conceived of such a bold Christian message on our currency or in an American pledge.
Nevertheless, that motto supplanted another one that had prevailed since its adoption in 1782. This motto is fairly well-hidden on the today’s dollar. Look to the seal on the right and read the banner the eagle is holding in its beak: It says “E pluribus unum.” Translated from Latin, it reads “From the many, one.” For subtle clues on the meaning of this statement, count the number of stars over the eagle’s head, count the number of arrows in his left talon and count the number of leaves on the olive branch in his right talon. Oh, and don’t forget to count the number of stripes on the shield in front of the eagle. It’s not an accident the the number “13” shows up again and again on the Great Seal.
You see, there were 13 colonies that formed the original United States and and the motto “e pluribus unum” embodied the belief that, while the individual states were important in and of themselves, the real strength of the USA was in our union - “From our many states, one Nation.”
Today, we will hear much about red states and blue states. We have heard and will continue to hear about how divided we are as a country. But I’d like to think that today we will elect a president who will somehow represent all 50 states and unite us. I suppose the individual who becomes President is “one from many.” But the USA is bigger than the President, bigger than the states and bigger than any single one of us. We need to remember that the United States is all of us. Is it unreasonable to think that we might start working together as one (unum)?
Canon 5DIII 1/400 sec f2.8 250 ISO