Paterno: The Campaign Speech I Want to Hear

Living in the Nittany Valley in the fall is to grasp a piece of heaven on earth. The late afternoon sunshine on the mountains casts an airy glow to colorful leaves that no camera can truly capture. The trees on the mountains and across the valley’s floor are painted from God’s palette of yellows, reds, golds, brown and orange. It is truly a divine display of God’s hand and an artistry unmatched by any human or AI creation.

Across large swaths of our country, leaves are changing and autumnal splendor stirs our hearts and minds. Fall’s coming and passing into winter remind us of the cycle of life, where our youth comes and passes, before rebirth in the spring. 

Fall is also the political season, where elections remind us that while the seasons come and go, we have a sacred duty, a civic responsibility to partake in the process of democratic elections in our grand republic.

This year, as serious issues abound, we as a people living in autumn mountain majesties amid amber waves of grain are not getting the serious political discourse worthy of our nation’s proud history. 

Real world problems here include a cost-of-living that is hurting many of our fellow residents. Internationally, there are challenges to world peace where bombs fall on innocent people who are pawns in a geopolitical power game. These are just some of the things facing us.

And yet, from the campaign rally bully pulpit to the commercials we see on TV, the messages spewing venomous discord are everywhere. We are being told to fear people who love differently, who worship differently and the worst stereotypes imaginable are being used as a currency of truth.

Islamophobia is on full display in Michigan. The bogeyman of creeping “communism” is being recycled from the 1980s when its threat was real. Unearthing the horrific childhood trauma of another candidate is explained away as part of the “rough sport” of politics in Ohio. Election denial from six years ago remains a loyalty test despite repeatedly being disproven. Anecdotal, fringe issues, many without actual proof of existence, are being overblown to distract, disturb and disrupt.  

All over the country, candidates with campaigns devoid of ideas or solutions are using scare tactics to pit us against one another. Stereotypes spoken by people desperate to cling to power ask us to dislike or fear people whose lives are more like ours than we think.

Whether Muslim, Jew, Christian or any other faith, all parents have similar dreams and aspirations for their children. All of us want peace. All of us want health and happiness for ourselves and our children. All of us hope that our children will attain the education or training to live healthy, happy, productive lives and realize their dreams.

We all have those darkest nights, when we lie awake worrying about our families, and about what future challenges may await us. Cancer, violence, mental health challenges, tragic accidents do not discriminate and they arrive without warning. We worry about the financial challenges, or job security. Amid those times of doubt, we place our hope in the faith of that which is yet unseen.

In America, we should be free to decide to whom we offer our prayers of hope and peace. The path of faith that is different from ours is not an inherent threat. That is one of the factors that brought many of our ancestors here. In the wealthiest nation on earth, our destiny should not be determined by where we’re born, the ZIP code where we live or the circumstances of our parents’ lives.

In this nation, all of us should be able to aspire to a better life than is attainable anywhere else; that is the essence of the American dream. In America, anyone, from anywhere in the world, is capable of becoming American without having to “assimilate” their religious beliefs or even suppress the proud cultural identity of family or faith or food.

As one noted radical stated years ago:

In Philadelphia, two centuries ago, James Allen wrote in his diary that “If we fail, liberty no longer continues an inhabitant of this globe.” Well, we didn’t fail. And still, we must not fail. For freedom is not the property of one generation; it’s the obligation of this and every generation. It’s our duty to protect it and expand it and pass it undiminished to those still unborn.

Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it’s the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America’s triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond. Other countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on Earth comes close.

This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people — our strength — from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.

That radical was President Ronald Reagan, speaking on Jan. 19, 1989. 

He did not fear a fictitious replacement theory. He knew who our enemy was. He wanted Lady Liberty’s door to be held open. He led a nation that didn’t scare so easily, because our leaders believed in the strength of our people.

For most of my life, almost every president and administration has assumed a belief in the strength of this nation, in the American spirit, and looked optimistically toward an ascendant future. They preached a unity, of looking towards a future horizon to benefit all people in this nation. No worthy president ever spent their days looking backward, pining for some mythical non-existent age of perfectionism. Their eyes were on the work ahead and an assumption that every tomorrow must be better than every today.

The journey toward a more perfect union is ongoing. The American journey is not to end with the domination of one religion, race, ethnicity or party over others.

As a Christian, albeit an imperfect one, I do have a faith that I practice. But in America the practice of my faith does not give me license to discriminate against the faith of others. That faith did not teach me to reject others. In both my religious faith and my faith as an American, I find the grounding values in the Lord’s prayer and in the founding documents of this nation.

In the Lord’s prayer, every pronoun is plural (we/us/our); it’s completely devoid of I/me/mine. The same goes for our founding documents. In the Lord’s prayer, we pray for our daily bread, for us to be forgiven as we forgive others. In the Lord’s prayer, there is no prayer for victory over others, or for power to subjugate the weak.  

And in our founding documents we declared independence from tyranny of the mind and body. We established a more perfect union to ensure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Bill of Rights established freedom of religion, freedom of speech and ensured the freedom from tyranny of the mob, freedom from the tyranny of a ruling class. It established a nation whose power was rooted in the rule of law rather than the whims of men.

As October’s beauty fades into the reality of November’s election day, we have an obligation stated by that president almost 38 years ago. The power of the presidency, or service on our courts or in Congress, should come with an obligation of service to the nation and the rule of law that great people humbly hold with the utmost respect. 

In 2026, that humility has been lost amid a blood sport and blood lust for retention of power that enriches oneself and one’s allies in power. 

Years ago, Robert F. Kennedy was running for Senate and visited a migrant worker camp in western New York, where he witnessed children with bellies distended from malnutrition. As they were driving away he turned his tearful eyes toward the window and said, “The only reason to get into politics is to use your position to help people in trouble.”

As we head to the polls next Tuesday, may we look back to the guidance that has led us for the majority of our nation’s history. Look inside your heart and vote your conscience. Vote for what is real; vote for the issues impacting our common ground. Vote for the values that we hold dear, to bend the arc of history stretching toward the future, toward justice. Vote toward the expansion of liberty’s blessings to all people here and in every part of the world we reach. 

To do anything less is to abdicate a right that women and men marched and bled and even died to secure. 

And as we gaze in wonder at another autumn sunset, the vivid orange and purple streaks ahead of nightfall remind us of the beauty of a day that has passed and fill us with the hope of a brighter dawn.