When 'E Pluribus Unum' Meant Something

"E Pluribus Unum" is Latin for "out of many, one." The United States has had periods of shakiness in the "United" part dating clear back to the founding of the nation, as a number of the colonists remained loyal to Britain. How many? Who the hell knows, since Gallup wasn't in business back then, but it all makes sense, because established British rule was bound to have its supporters. Even after the successful severance from Britain, unity remained shaky, as the individual states, which had come out of the individual colonies, pulled in their own directions, and the battle over how much power the national government should have continued, culminating in the biggest breakdown to "E Pluribus Unum" yet, with the Civil War and its aftermath. American involvement in World War One began an era in which a sense of national unity improved, amazingly only 52 years after the end of the bitterly contested and costly Civil War, although Southern resentment continued to linger, expressed most openly by Southern contempt for Republicans, "the Party of Lincoln," and by outward hostility to the substantial Black American population located in the South (most being former slaves, or the children or grandchildren of slaves). The Great Depression and World War Two furthered the sense of national unity and the sense of "we're all in this together" and "we need to help one another," rather than "this doesn't affect me, the hell with it," or "I've got mine, the hell with you," which has translated into the selfish and divisive philosophy of "we're all in this alone," of more recent decades.

There were still intense debates and divisions, along with some way out divisiveness on the fringes, but there wasn't this pervasive "totally destroy the other side," or the, "bring the country down so we can take over," philosophy. The way out stuff was generally marginalized in both parties, because there was a great political middle of the country that provided stability through common national purpose, and many in that middle ground loyally voted Republican or Democratic, but they were also willing to work with the other party in the interest of the nation. Time has eroded our sense of how we need each other, and Korea, and most certainly Vietnam, undermined the nation's sense of common purpose in wartime, as many Americans didn't really much take to the idea of the country being a superpower watchdog for the world, brought about by the U.S. contribution to the winning of World War Two, although the Soviet Union, and then China (then always called "Red China" in America), made Americans uneasy, with the idea that such regimes had to be opposed, before they came knocking at our own front door, a lesson equated with Hitler's behavior leading up to the outbreak of World War Two.

America is not a perfect country, nor has it ever been. Our insecurity seems readily shown when national problems such as homelessness or the lack of national medical care for our citizens are mentioned, only to be met with the slogans "we're the greatest country" and "we have the best health care system in the world," regardless of any facts that contradict the latter. These kinds of slogans are a way of hiding from problems (denial), but the problems persist and hiding from them will not provide one iota of solution to them. Some Americans love to quote the Statue of Liberty verse about "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," but just look at what many are now seeking to do, implement cuts to the poorest of Americans, yet they espouse giving tax cuts to the wealthiest of the wealthy. So much for the "tired and poor." And of course "equality" is another touchy subject for "some" Americans who never seem to realize the privilege they've often enjoyed by having been born of European heritage, although they claim to love the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Oh, and they also often "claim" to be religious, often Christian. I'll be trite, but in all cases "actions speak louder than words." 

Longing for this lost virtue of "the American nation" will not bring it back, although 9/11 temporarily brought many Americans to their senses, but again, it was temporary, and I wonder if Al Gore had been president at that time, or better yet, if some such similar incident happened now with Obama as president, if the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, Bachmann, Cruz, Trump, Hannity, O'Reilly, et al, would call for national unity or use the incident to try to destroy the President by inciting hatred and divisiveness? Think about it.

WORD HISTORY:
Roll/Role- "Role" was an offshoot of "roll," but it's meaning was actually derived from the parent word (see below). "Roll" goes back to Indo European "roto," which had the notion of "to turn over or around repeatedly." This gave its Italic/Latin offspring "rota," which meant "wheel," and its diminutive form,^ "rotula," gave Latin the verb "rotulare," with the meaning "to roll." This gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "roeler," with the same basic meaning. English borrowed the word from French during the 1300s as "rollen," and grammatical changes in English soon lopped off the ending leaving us "roll." The noun form has the same basic history, except Latin had a noun "rotulus," which meant "roll of paper, often used for records or documents." This gave Old French "rolle," by then with only the "record, document" meaning. English borrowed the word from French with that same meaning, but the word has expanded in meanings since then, including "dough rolled out in pieces before baking," a usage very common today. Of course the addition of "er" gave English "roller," a device used for rolling out some material like dough or metal. "Role" has the same history as the above words, but the meaning "paper record or document" provided the notion for French "rôle," meaning "a part in a play written on a roll of paper." English borrowed the word from French in the late 1500s or early 1600s. Time has obscured the "written part in a play" idea and the word's meaning has expanded to include "part in a job," and more. Other Germanic languages besides English have borrowed "roll," and, for example, German has "rollen" (verb=to roll) and "Rolle" (noun=role, roll, reel).

^ A diminutive form makes the meaning of a root word (or even a separate word) "smaller" or "more endearing;" thus the Latin word for wheel, "rota," spawned "rotula," which simply means "little wheel." Other examples of diminutives: pig/piglet; duck/duckling; mother/mama/mom/mommy; tiny/teensy/teeny. We also use such in names to show affection or friendship: Margaret/Maggie; Richard/Ricky; Elizabeth/Lizzie; Thomas/Tommy.