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E pluribus unum.

From the Latin, that phrase means “out of many, one” and is such a fundamental concept to the founding of this country and the bedrock principle that has mad it a great nation over the past 250 years.

To be fair, that sense unity has been sorely tested through those two and a half centuries through some actions in our history that modern day observers find much less convenient to that narrative such as the forced dispossession and removal of the native populations from their ancestral lands, the institution of slavery, a horrific Civil War that still holds the top step of the shameful podium of wars that claimed the most American lives, lack of equality for women in society, and institutionalised racism that still hasn’t been completely eradicated and in recent years seems to have gotten noticeably worse.

Yep…this country has been a hot mess at times through throughout it’s relatively short history, it kind of is now, and it’s likely to continue occasionally being a hot mess in the future.

But in spite of all of our faults and there are many of them to choose from, no country has ever come close to the United States when it comes to generosity and responding to cataclysmic disasters no matter where in the world they might occur.

The devastating 9.2 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2004 in the Indian Ocean that wiped out Aceh province and many other communities throughout southeast Asia? Within hours, the United States was already mobilising all kinds of military assets in the area including hospital ships and the entire logistics command to surge humanitarian supplies and equipment for rescue and recovery into the area and provided quite a bit of money to aid in the recovery of the region.

Most of the countries in the affected area were rather ambivalent and not necessarily friendly regimes. We went there anyway and helped as much as we could.

That’s but one example and there are many others through the years where this country is leading the effort to recover from whatever disaster has struck.

Even when natural disasters strikes the homeland, be it devastating hurricanes or catastrophic tornadoes or flooding not seen since Noah was floating his boat…this country has had a long history of coming together and helping out our neighbours in need with the understanding that they’d return the favour when it was our turn to need a bit of a helping hand to recover and get back on our feet.

Sometimes the results of those efforts were woefully inadequate (the early months after Hurricane Katrina and the sluggish response to the catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Helene in our own backyard comes to mind) if not outright comical (to this day, Floridians who lived through FEMA’s botched response after Hurricane Andrew still laugh at the notion that the utterly incompetent FEMA they dealt with was behind the conspiracy or indeed capable of carrying off such a conspiracy in the “X-Files” movie).

But we go anyway. We move heaven and earth as best we can for our neighbours anyway.

That’s the thing about shared tragedies…they bring people who often wouldn’t give the other the time of day together at least briefly which becomes a symbol of hope that we haven’t truly forgotten how to rise above the petty squabbles and disagreements of the day and show that nobility of heart and character and generosity toward those in need that the United States can rightfully be proud of through the years.

The trick is that we’ve not quite learned how to keep that spirit of togetherness and cooperation going once the immediate danger has passed.

If there is anything I hope our country can eventually figure out and the 25th anniversary of the diabolical terrorist attacks on our country that brought us together in ways and strength we hadn’t seen for decades should be a good enough time to start as any…it’s simply to remember the motto of this country.

E pluribus unum.

Not just what it translates to but what it really means at the end of the day.

That we truly understand and live every day hereafter the quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago…

We must, indeed, all hang together or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

Quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin

It was with that in mind that I chose a theme that mixed songs that exemplified the spirit of America along with some interspersed reminders of togetherness and unity.

Game 1 Warm-Ups

Zamboni and Game 2 Warm-Ups

Post-Game