President’s Day Eve: Defining the Soul of America, An Unabated Presidents Mission and Need for Modern-Day People’s Revolution

A poor person, even by Indian standards was allowed to work in richest nation for 4 years. A person who hardly has $1500 in the bank account is working in an IT job in America for a lengthy duration. A person with zero savings but few small properties to his name was allowed to operate on the highest platform for many years. Is it possible in any other rich nation in the world. That to me define the soul of America – a generous nation which can breed a poor, common man and raise to the highest level. More than a surprise, the person breaches ranks and works in assumed roles of highest order. This is more real than imaginary assumptions. If I take my last year and more, the point will hit home – everything happened to fulfill the role I might have assumed. Nothing lasts forever but enjoy something, savour something, revel at the wonder that has happened, for the time passed by is as such. Who might have imagined in wildest dreams that this nothing man from a third world nation will create wonders in richest nation. This is truth written in history and no one can deny. The nation that facilitated the rise is what constitutes its essence or soul – the true, holy, goodness of intention and action lifting up deserving, fine men to the top and not discarding them. Bridges and not barriers will create stories like mine. Once again, a person with hardly $1500 in bank account migrating and working in US on epic scale, far above anyone can imagine is possible in a land which stands tall to receive and not repel. This wonder, for me, from my little experience and perspective is one of the hallmarks of modern day US. It should be our endeavor to define, live and upheld the same spirit and pass it on to future generations to make it the greatest nation on the Earth. 

Great nations are built by great presidents. There is no denying this fact. America has reached the place it is in through a series of serious men at the top steering the nation all the way to the present state. From Lincoln to Roosevelts to Truman to Eisenhower to Reagan; great principled men have presided over the nation to lead it into linear, perpetual, scientific progress. It is a blessing that the nation was presided over by greatest president ever on Earth - Lincoln more than 150 years ago to lay a foundation for one of the best nations in modern history. To tell about the time America had, social discrimination or inequal treatment exists in India through castes, regions or communal lines and various diverse factors. The seeds to eliminate these differences are sown very recently and it is work in progress in India. It takes years to reach the developed state unless a great leader unites the nation by pulling together distant, different elements. The present days are a step in that direction and we can expect the fruits down the line. But this greatness was witnessed way back in America through a Lincoln and many others. Lincoln, for example, issued the emancipation proclamation, advanced the cause of ending slavery and redefined a fair democracy where people are made paramount. This is in 1860 and what follows will be invariably true goodness without anything else. As one principled man after another ruled, progressed this spirit in word and action, we are staring at a nation with a soul so divine and holy that common men cannot fathom. Everyone says, America is a magnet which attracts the best but hardly notices the grind behind it. This is the grind that went behind and the distance this nation traveled in its storied journey to reach a state where every best person on the planet finds fulfillment on the land. I am no exception for a wonderful story like mine hardly occurs anywhere else or in any other age. Thus I define the soul of the America from a foreign perspective in this way - A system that allows ordinary individuals, regardless of origin, to rise through merit within stable institutions, protected by freedom, strengthened by responsibility, and renewed through self-correction. If everyday Americans commit to protecting that structure—while improving it where it falls short—the nation will not only remain wealthy, it will remain worthy. Remember, we are defining the soul of this nation bottom up – creating breeding ground and creating stories on top of it, to make a working America for every aspiring immigrant in the world. This is what should define the nation of immigrants. 

As we gather to honor our presidents, it's worth pausing to recognize what their collective vision has built through an unabated mission for over two centuries —a nation that stands at heights no civilization has previously reached. Not in conquest, but in capacity. Not through dominion, but through innovation. Not by chance, but through the accumulated wisdom of leaders who, across centuries and despite profound disagreements, shared a conviction that America could be exceptional not just in word but in deed. 

Economic Might Beyond Precedent 

The numbers themselves tell an extraordinary story. America's economy has surged past $29 trillion, representing nearly a quarter of global economic output. This isn't merely wealth—it's capability on a scale that would have seemed fantastical to any previous generation. When Washington took office, he presided over a fragile collection of agricultural states. Today's America produces more value in a single day than the entire economy of his era produced in a year. 

This prosperity isn't concentrated in dusty industries of the past. American companies define the future. Seven of the world's ten most valuable corporations fly the American flag. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, Tesla, Meta—these aren't just businesses; they're platforms that have fundamentally altered human existence. They've put supercomputers in our pockets, democratized information, revolutionized commerce, and pioneered technologies from artificial intelligence to electric vehicles that will shape the next century. 

The stock market, despite its fluctuations, has created wealth that allows millions of Americans to retire with dignity, fund their children's education, and invest in their dreams. From Eisenhower's expansion of the middle class to Clinton's economic expansion, presidents from both parties have contributed to an economic architecture that, for all its flaws, remains the most dynamic and resilient in the world. 

The Innovation Nation 

America's research infrastructure represents perhaps our greatest achievement and most enduring legacy. Our universities—Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, and dozens more—don't just top global rankings; they define what higher education means worldwide. They attract the best minds from every nation, creating an intellectual melting pot that has produced breakthroughs impossible in more homogeneous societies. 

From FDR's investment in wartime research that gave us radar, computers, and nuclear energy, to Kennedy's moonshot that birthed technologies still paying dividends, to recent investments in clean energy and AI, presidential vision has consistently bet on American ingenuity. That bet has paid spectacular dividends. 

Consider just recent years: mRNA vaccines developed in record time saved millions of lives globally. American labs achieved fusion ignition—bringing humanity closer to limitless clean energy. Our companies and universities lead in quantum computing, biotechnology, materials science, and space exploration. SpaceX routinely launches and lands rockets, making space access routine. American scientists remain the world's most decorated, our patents the most numerous, our startups the most daring. 

The Immigrant Nation: America's Secret Weapon 

Perhaps no presidential legacy is more profound than the ongoing embrace—however imperfect—of immigration as a source of national strength. From Washington welcoming those "oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions" to Reagan declaring "if we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost," our greatest leaders understood a fundamental truth: America's genius lies not in blood or soil but in the constant renewal that immigration provides. 

The statistics are staggering. More than 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Google, founded by Sergey Brin who arrived from the Soviet Union as a refugee. eBay, founded by Pierre Omidyar, son of Iranian immigrants. Moderna, whose mRNA vaccine was co-invented by Turkish immigrant Dr. Ugur Sahin. The list goes on: Intel, Tesla, Zoom, WhatsApp, SpaceX, Pfizer—titans of American innovation all touched by immigrant founders or key leadership. 

Over half of America's billion-dollar startups have immigrant founders. Nearly 40% of Nobel Prizes awarded to Americans have gone to immigrants. Immigrants are twice as likely as native-born Americans to start businesses, creating jobs and driving economic dynamism. They represent just 14% of the population but account for nearly 30% of patent applications. 

But immigration's contribution transcends economics. Every American president since Kennedy has welcomed refugees fleeing tyranny—Vietnamese boat people under Ford and Carter, Soviet Jews under Reagan, Bosnian Muslims under Clinton, Afghans under Biden. These weren't just humanitarian gestures; they were strategic affirmations that America stands for something beyond narrow self-interest. These newcomers and their children have enriched American culture, strengthened American values, and demonstrated to the world that pluralism works. 

The American military draws strength from immigrant service members who fight for their adopted country with particular devotion. Our hospitals depend on foreign-trained doctors and nurses. Our universities thrive on international students who often stay to contribute their talents. Our arts, cuisine, and culture have been immeasurably enriched by successive waves of newcomers. 

The Promise Continues 

What's most remarkable isn't just what we've achieved but that the mechanisms for continued achievement remain robust. Our entrepreneurial culture still rewards risk-taking. Our universities still attract global talent. Our markets still allocate capital efficiently. Our laboratories still push boundaries. 

This is the America that great presidents helped build: wealthy beyond precedent, innovative beyond compare, strengthened by the dreams of people from every nation, and resilient beyond expectation. As we honor their leadership, we inherit both their achievements and their responsibility—to preserve what works, fix what's broken, and ensure that America's unprecedented success becomes sustainable, shared success that endures for generations yet unborn. 

Where the Movement Must Begin: Reclaiming Our Future 

The achievements are real. The prosperity is unprecedented. Yet standing atop this mountain of accomplishment, we can see clearly the chasms that threaten to swallow our success whole. The next great American movement cannot wait for perfect leaders or ideal moments—it must begin now, in communities across this nation, with ordinary citizens deciding that the gap between America's capacity and America's reality has become morally intolerable. 

The Urgency of Now 

Gun violence has become our national shame. Nearly 50,000 Americans die annually from gunfire—more than car accidents, more than any peer nation could fathom. Our children rehearse their own murders through active shooter drills. Parents drop their kids at school with a knot of fear that previous generations reserved for war zones. This isn't the price of freedom—it's the cost of inaction dressed up as constitutional principle. Other democracies have gun ownership and gun rights without daily carnage. The difference isn't their love of liberty; it's their willingness to regulate deadly weapons with the same seriousness we regulate cars, medications, and food safety. 

Climate change accelerates while we debate. Hurricanes intensify, wildfires consume whole towns, floods devastate communities with increasing frequency. We possess the technology for a complete energy transformation—solar, wind, batteries, electric vehicles, grid modernization—yet deploy it with maddening incrementalism. Future generations won't forgive us for having both the knowledge and the means to act while choosing to protect short-term profits and political convenience over their survival. The window for preventing catastrophic warming narrows each year, and we're still arguing about whether the window exists. 

Healthcare in America is a systematic failure hiding behind free-market rhetoric. We spend twice what other developed nations spend per capita while achieving worse outcomes on virtually every metric—infant mortality, life expectancy, maternal death rates, chronic disease management. Medical bankruptcy remains uniquely American. Families crowdfund cancer treatments. Diabetics ration insulin. People die from treatable conditions because they can't afford care. This isn't a healthcare system—it's wealth extraction masquerading as medicine. In the richest nation ever, healthcare should be a right secured by citizenship, not a privilege purchased by wealth. 

Wealth inequality has reached obscene levels. Billionaires have emerged as a new aristocracy whose fortunes distort democracy itself. CEOs pocket 350 times what median workers earn. Meanwhile, wages stagnate, housing becomes unaffordable, student debt shackles millions, and retirement security evaporates. The social contract—that hard work ensures dignified life—has been shredded. We've built an economy that works spectacularly for those at the top while leaving the vast majority treading water or drowning. 

Where the Movement Begins 

The movement we need doesn't start in Washington—it starts in neighborhoods, workplaces, faith communities, and schools. It begins when enough Americans decide that accepting these conditions as inevitable is itself a choice, and we can choose differently. 

It begins with local organizing. Every transformative American movement—abolition, suffrage, labor rights, civil rights—started with ordinary people organizing their communities. Neighborhood associations demanding gun safety laws. Parent groups advocating for school boards to adopt climate curricula and sustainability practices. Workers organizing for living wages and healthcare benefits. Faith communities mobilizing around healthcare as a moral imperative. 

It requires coalition building across traditional divides. Rural communities devastated by the opioid crisis have common cause with urban neighborhoods terrorized by gun violence—both suffer from treating public health crises as criminal justice problems. Working-class families drowning in healthcare costs have common cause with small business owners crushed by insurance premiums. Climate action creates jobs for workers transitioning from fossil fuel industries. The solutions to these problems aren't zero-sum—they're mutually reinforcing. 

It needs new leadership willing to tell hard truths. We need leaders who acknowledge that solving gun violence requires regulating guns. That addressing climate change requires transitioning away from fossil fuels. That universal healthcare requires challenging insurance and pharmaceutical company profits. That reducing inequality requires progressive taxation and wealth redistribution. Courage isn't polling well—it's doing what's right when it's hard. 

It must be relentlessly nonviolent but absolutely disruptive. History teaches that power concedes nothing without pressure. Marches, strikes, boycotts, sit-ins, civil disobedience—the full toolkit of democratic disruption must be on the table. But violence delegitimizes movements and provides excuses for repression. The moral high ground is both strategic and essential. 

The Choice Before Us 

We stand at a unique moment. We have unprecedented wealth, unmatched technological capability, and robust democratic institutions. What we lack isn't means—it's will. The movement that must emerge is one that says: We refuse to accept that the wealthiest nation in history can't keep its children safe, can't ensure its people receive healthcare, can't address the existential threat of climate change, can't provide economic security to those who work hard. 

This isn't radicalism—it's common sense wrapped in moral urgency. The revolution we need isn't about tearing down what works but about finally fixing what doesn't. It begins when we do. It begins now. America has risen before—through civil rights struggles, labor movements, battles for justice that seemed impossible until they weren't. The time to work on the ills plaguing the nation by leading the next big movement is now. When we can have soul defining times, by having a Gandhi working on the civil apparatus, the nation should respond by healing the wounds. The picture is there, we all had seen; the inspiration is there, we all felt; the iron became hot for the mend and it is time to bring that change on the ground to overcome all the short comings in the otherwise great nation. It begins with the movement that inspires through a consensually accepted mission underway to achieve the next impossible.