The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and American Exceptionalism

Monday was Memorial Day. A special day for America to honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice. Many ceremonies across the nation were held, several speeches were made, but there was one speech I heard Monday that I thought captured the day and America perfectly. It was Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

For those that don’t know, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a sacred place at Arlington for those fallen Soldiers who couldn’t be identified for whatever reasons of war.

Here's some excerpts from Hegseth’s speech:

"Throughout time civilizations have honored the powerful, the well-connected and the well-born. Emperors and kings have built magnificent shrines to their own royal greatness. Yet in America with our great experiment in self-government it is fitting the most honored and closely guarded tomb in the land is that of an anonymous soldier of an unknown rank."

“While we don’t know the unknown’s identity race or creed, we know his story. It’s the story of every Soldier, every warrior. It’s a simple story as old as war. A young man with hopes and dreams and loves, who’s called by his country leaves behind his hometown, his parents, his siblings, his sweetheart, all that he knows, to go fight a war he may or may not understand.”

“He answered the call fought and died for this republic. The ultimate sacrifice of a free people. You see the American Soldier fights not because he hates what’s in front of him, but because he loves what’s behind him. We honor his selfish sacrifice, his courage, his duty and his love.”

This speech captured the fighting warrior spirit that makes America. A republic, not a democracy, but a republic, for more than 200 years has been worth volunteering to pick up arms to defend and fight for. Why? I say it’s because American exceptionalism. What is American exceptionalism?

American exceptionalism is not the idea that Americans are better than the rest of the world. Our DNA is no different from any other nation, past or present. However, America stands out for its ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things, leading to innovations that have greatly benefited the world.

We feed the world, lead the world, provide humanitarian aid around the world, defend the world. No one has liberated more people from the bondage of tyranny than America in the history of the World.

That’s American exceptionalism, and it's not about kings, queens, a ruling class of the well-connected. It's the results of the great experiment of American self-governance that says the common man is left to his own creations to bear fruits of his labor without interference.

An experiment that has inspired ordinary people to do extraordinary things to produce things for themselves that benefit the whole, to take care of themselves, and anyone else in their communities that needs it via their church or whatever neighborhood association or organization they belonged to without the so-called help from government.

And that is something we’re losing in America. Many Americans increasingly believe that government is needed to accomplish anything. They believe we need government to manage every aspect of society and our lives.

But government, even when run in the most efficient way, only gets in the way of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, because ordinary people end up having their lives managed by the well-born, ruling class, experts that know what’s best for all. Creative productivity gets stifled, and you’re no longer allowed to accomplish extraordinary things.

American exceptionalism, it’s what has made the republic worth fighting for by our young warriors, and Hegseth’s speech captured it.