My name is Randy Cooper, I am a local Utah County resident and I am the creator of the Pledge to BE AMERICAN campaign and podcast. As part of my campaign, I am inviting every American to voluntarily make a personal pledge to “BE AMERICAN” by individually committing to do the following:
1. Respect all others as equals
2. Value every live as my own
3.Promote Liberty and justice for all
4. Work to pursue happiness
This pledge is nothing more than my interpretation of the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. These are not my ideas but only my interpretation of the great American foundation that allows liberty, justice, freedom and prosperity to exist. To me, this is THE cultural foundation that the greatness of our nation is built upon.
I am quite concerned about the way America is heading culturally, and as I explain my reasoning, I want to pose this question to you: Where do you think we are headed as a country as far as the cultural aspect goes? I’d also like you to reflect on where you think the country is now, from a cultural perspective?
Near the end of 2024 a Gallup poll found that only 19% of Americans believed that the country was headed in the right direction. In March of 2025, a similar Reuter’s Poll found that only 34% of Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction. But I have to ask, do we as a cultural nation even know what the right direction is anymore? Do a majority of American citizens even believe that America and our founding principles are even good? Is there a single American principle of debate of any sorts that 95% of Americans can agree upon today? Is there anything that is giving our nation any sort of national identity or any sort of ideal that we can all be proud to unite around? I don’t know of one? Do you? Honestly?
I ask you to think about a single non-partisan, positive and uniting message or agenda that a majority of Americans are currently uniting behind? I don’t currently see one.
According to Chat GPT, a poll found that only 63% of Americans even believe that America will be a positive influence in the world over the next decade. The reality is that culturally speaking, America is collapsing with division and hate, and for what? Almost 4 out of 10 Americans don’t even believe that America will be a future force for good in the world over the next decade or so. And I even wonder to myself if we will be. Where are we headed as a country? Who knows? I don’t know the answer to that question, because I don’t really know what we Americans are standing for anymore these days.
Like many of you, I was completely shaken when Charlie Kirk was assassinated —murdered in cold blood less than 20 miles away from my own personal home. As I see it, Charlie Kirk was probably the number one American advocate for our First Amendment rights. And he was assassinated in “Happy Valley” of all places. And yes, there is a large number of American citizens who feel like he deserved it because of how he promoted our Second Amendment rights with his first amendment rights.
And then there’s the growing number of mass shootings in America. Does anyone want to take any bets on the date and or location of the next church or school shooting in America? It’s like we almost expect it to happen, and few of us are shocked to the least degree when it does.
What are we doing to ourselves culturally? Do we have any clue? And has fear already removed a portion of our First Amendment rights? In my view, yes, it has.
Do you see any outdoor political debate events on the horizon? Nope. Do we even have the ability anymore to behave civilly in an intellectual political debate of ideas? Not really. And when in such a debate, are any of us attempting in any way to understand the validity of the view points of those on the other side. Are our ears, our heart and our minds turned off to their language while we work angrily in the defense of our own opinions and ideas in an “I’m right, you’re wrong” mentality?
It is in fact, actually, our national sense of unity, and personal respect for others that allows us to respectfully enter into any form of intellectual debate of ideas, but today, what message is there working to unite us? And do a majority of us personally respect our political opponents? Nope.
I ask you all this: Is America actually still the land of the free and the home of the brave? IT doesn’t feel like it to me. From my experience, a better description for America today would be the land of the careless and the complacent and the home of the… wait, what home? Most of our kids won’t even be able to afford a two bedroom apartment without three other roommates there to help pay the rent.
I believe that as a nation, culturally speaking, we need to be able to once again find or create an ideal or a commonality that we can all positively unite our cultural expectations around, and as I previously mentioned, there is only one message or ideal with the power and diversity to do that- and it is found in the documents of America’s founding: The Preamble to The Declaration of Independence.
God blessed these beautiful words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
In my opinion, these are the words that formed the great American ideology of freedom and peace. These words and the virtuous vision of their true cultural implementation have been the driving force behind the great American cultural ideal for generations, but we seem to be losing that understanding and culturally uniting vision of what they truly stand for. This campaign is my effort to culturally reinstitute the widespread promotion of that uniting and ever-powerful foundational American cultural vision and understanding.
But let me explain this to you: The individual American citizen’s hearts and minds are the true source drivers of every unique intrapersonal interaction across the country, and it is simply the accumulation of all of those interactions that create the national presentation and aura of our American culture. As I see it, if we are going to change American culture and re-unite our citizenry around the true American founding principles that have and will continue to allow our freedoms and civil liberties to culturally exist, the only rational target and catalyst of change resides within each American citizen’s hearts and minds. The best way I can think of to influence the individual American minds is simply to humbly and individually invite each one of them to personally and voluntarily make a pledge to recommit themselves to these principles.
I am asking for individual American citizens to make a pledge to recommit to live in a way that allows American freedom and the ideal of liberty and justice for all to exist.
In order to make the Pledge, I am asking people to simply buy a Pledge to Be American Campaign T-shirt. The link to purchase the shirt, along with more about how I am hoping to share in these grassroots efforts can be found on the Pledge to be American Campaign Podcast on Apple. Visit bonfire.com/pledge-to-be-american.
