“We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense.”

As I write, it has been a year since the president’s inauguration and his accompanying speech. I voted for him. Though the specifics of the speech have largely left my memory, I do recall agreeing with much of the content. Of course, his speech, as is often the case, carried little real force—it was primarily show.

The line I quoted above, however, deeply disturbs me still. “We will not apologize for our way of life.” To put it mildly, I have had quite enough of our perennial and excessive arrogance.

The truth is we have a lot to apologize for. Ask yourselves, what makes the U.S. so possessed of virtue and greatness that we are willing to stare directly into the eyes of the rest of the world and claim, whether as individuals or as a whole society, we have nothing of which to be ashamed?

I believe in much this country has accomplished. Whatever anyone else says, our Constitution is indeed a wondrous document; many of its amendments shine as some of the greatest strides humanity has made toward making laws intended to defend the helpless and the innocent, and to provide equal opportunity to everyone. Both the nation as a whole and many of its individual citizens have historically done much to show we do believe in notions such as generosity, compromise and even the healthy variety of personal liberty.

Yet our history is replete with darker moments. I ask you, when do our positive accomplishments wipe those away? When we create an obtuse, blanket statement such as “our way of life,” how is it we then proceed to trumpet we will not “waver in its defense” without the slightest twinge of self-doubt?

Many of the running narratives in this country aid us in believing we hold little real culpability. This is a point many of us can likely agree upon; however, I doubt this would be the case if we began to discuss the specifics. So let me enumerate a few items just so we are clear about what I mean.

How many of you realize the sad irony in the U.S. military occupying a nation whose people we once covertly armed to fight violently against another, different occupier?

How many of you remember the lies used to justify the Iraq invasion of 2003? Or our sordid affairs with the Nicaraguan Contras two decades ago? Or our long-standing involvement in Chile, which eventually resulted in the 1973 coup and Augusto Pinochet’s rise to power? Or our aiding, circa 1960, young Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athists in their own coup?

Going further back in time, how many of you know the U.S. was one of the last major western nations to ban slavery? How many of you are willing to admit the only reason we even have the land upon which this country is built is because we killed or displaced the indigenous peoples who originally called it home? Trail of Tears anyone?

Getting back to more recent events, consider the release of the Blackwater (now renamed Xe Services) operatives who shot unarmed Iraqi civilians. Or the Oklahoma man I heard claim the only thing which will set the “Arabs” straight is the Second Coming. Or that wealth and income inequality today are worse than they have been in more than half a century. Or our government impossibly considering legalizing the torture of human beings…

Take issue with any of the points I’ve raised, but there is no way we could claim some apologies are not in order.

You here at the OU— you young, aspiring adults—are the ones who will soon take up the mantles left by your mothers and fathers. It will be up to you to choose what direction you go. Whether you continue with the legacies left by our elders or deviate onto a new course.

But as you do, remember this: The worst of all lies is the one we perpetrate upon ourselves, and it is this lie which is the foundation and birthplace of all others. If you stand against the world, proud and strong, if you let a desire for hope wipe away the memory of the scars we have dealt both to ourselves and the rest of the world, you do a disservice to all humanity.

The burden of admitting and confronting our faults rests upon us all. As we deliberate over how best to overcome our current woes, it is critical we do not let fear and hubris blind us to this fact.