Prepared remarks: The Spirit of our Centennial State (April 11, 2025)
The Spirit of our Centennial State: Advancing an Inclusive and Pluralistic Republic
Colorado’s decision to join the Union in 1876 earned us the title of the Centennial State. We also became the first state to join the Union following adoption of the three Reconstruction Amendments – the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery,[1] the 14th Amendment which guaranteed birthright citizenship,[2] and the 15th Amendment that extended the right to vote to African American men.[3] These Amendments remade our Constitution, ended its tolerance of slavery, and further advanced our Declaration of Independence’s vision of a nation where all are created equal. In short, they chartered a new course for freedom and equality that our nation continues on today.
Our nation’s acceptance of slavery was an injustice that led to the Civil War. For us today, this period raises a critical question—how do we reckon with our nation’s dark chapters where we failed to live up to the ideals and aspirations of our national motto, e pluribus unum: out of many, we are one? Today, I will reflect on what this motto means and how we should take it as a call to action.
I. E Pluribus Unum, Now and Then
Immigrants fleeing various forms of intolerance in Europe came to America seeking a home where their “otherness” – for their ideas, for their religion, and for their status was less oppressive. America welcomed immigrants and committed to a principle that having different types of people in our country is a good thing. Unlike many countries that adopted a national religion, the United States was founded on a commitment to protect religious liberty for all Americans. For those persecuted in Europe because of their religion, whether Catholics, Jews, or Quakers, the United States offered refuge.
President George Washington is revered for his critical leadership that established this initial commitment to religious tolerance and took seriously the idea of e pluribus unum. Consider, for example, his words to a Rhode Island synagogue that wrote to him not long after he took office. In his now famous response, President Washington said the following:
For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.[4]
He also, quoting from the Book of Micah, wished for the Jewish community in America to:
continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.[5]
President Washington’s leadership reflects an aspiration for liberty and justice for all – that despite the “difference” of the Jewish community, they enjoyed the same rights and respect as the majority. That tradition is deeply personal to me because the U.S. Army liberated my mom and grandmother from a Nazi concentration camp near the end of World War II. And then this nation opened its arms, in the spirit of being a nation of immigrants, to welcome them as refugees when they had nowhere else to go.
In America, at our best, there is no “other.” There is only us. That’s what e pluribus unum means—out of many, we are one. In my religious tradition, we are also taught not to treat anyone as an “other.” During the holiday of Passover, which celebrates the exodus from Egypt, where Jews were enslaved, we have a festive meal called a Seder that includes the tradition of removing some of our wine to mourn the deaths of Egyptians when the Jews left Egypt. And we are also taught to “never forget the stranger, for we were strangers in a strange land.”
In today’s world, driven by social media, there is an increasing rise of treating some people—immigrants, transgender people, Muslims, and Jews, among others—as an “other”, as a stranger. This rising intolerance is a threat to the essence of our national motto and spirit. We need to resist efforts to divide us by dehumanizing those from whom we are different or have differing beliefs.[6] The increasing rise of hate, and the waving of symbols like the Nazi flag, the Confederate flag, and the Ku Klux Klan are not harmless. Nor is language like “we are taking our country back by any means necessary” or “protecting America for the ‘real’ Americans.”
In America, we must redouble our commitment to honor our founding tradition of inclusion and loving kindness towards all. President Washington’s words to the Rhode Island Jewish community would be, at the time he wrote them and even today in many parts of the world, simply unimaginable to hear from a head of state. But America was—and must remain—different. This requires more than words; it demands tangible brave actions from both the public and private sector. It means not abandoning policies and practices that facilitate unity, respect, and empathy. It means setting examples as compassionate leaders. It also means avoiding “othering” language that fuels the impulse towards division. We all must strive to realize President Washington’s call to “scatter light and not darkness in our paths.” This important sentiment was later echoed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who taught that “darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that; and hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”[7]
I have seen a powerful spirit of inclusion and unity in Colorado again and again. Take, for example, the experience in the wake of the devastating Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs. In response, communities from different traditions came together to stand for a basic principle—a hate crime against any of us, in that case against the LGBTQ community, must be treated as an attack on all of us. We can bear witness to the growing hate in our society and respond by creating bonds of humanity where we all can flourish and live—as President Washington put it—safely under our vine and fig tree. To do so effectively, we must not give hate oxygen and instead work to repair our world where too many feel lonely, isolated, and angry—and open to bigoted appeals that promise shared bonds built from hate.
II. The Legal and Fair Treatment of Immigrants
In Colorado, we have a proud legacy of welcoming diversity and pursuing the equal and fair treatment of everyone. During World War II, Governor Ralph Carr, whose name is on the building where the Attorney General’s Office is housed, took a principled stand, earning him the title of “The Principled Politician” (which is the name of his biography).[8] Governor Carr, citing the U.S Constitution, concluded that the internment of Japanese Americans was illegal and welcomed them to Colorado. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a now disavowed decision (the Korematsu case[9]), disagreed with Governor Carr and upheld President Roosevelt’s decision to intern Japanese Americans. Because of his unpopular stand, Governor Carr lost his next election. But history has celebrated his commitment to our constitutional values.
Governor Carr stood against scapegoating and for the fair treatment of all Americans. Over the course of American history, we have witnessed the battle that historian Jon Meacham called the battle for the “soul of America.”[10] This battle, he suggested, was between leaders like President Abraham Lincoln and Governor Ralph Carr on one hand and Father Coughlin (a priest and populist leader who promoted antisemitic and pro-fascist views, rising to fame during the Great Depression) and Senator Joseph McCarthy on the other. For President Lincoln, our challenge as Americans was to summon “our better angels.”[11] We continue to face that challenge today.
Some find that it can be effective politics to scapegoat and demonize a group of people. Today, we see that tactic on numerous fronts, including against immigrants and against transgender people. But the dehumanization of others is not a new phenomenon. Take, for example, the 1857 Dred Scott case.[12] In that decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Black American, Dred Scott, could not be a citizen and lacked any citizenship rights. At the time, citing the Declaration of Independence’s commitment that everyone was created equal, Abraham Lincoln decried the decision.[13] After the Civil War, Congress and the American people overruled the Dred Scott case by adopting the Fourteenth Amendment and, in Section 1, specified that anyone born in the United States (and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”) is a citizen. Later, the Supreme Court confirmed that this clause applies even to children of non-citizens, regardless of whether such people are in the U.S. under a granted status or without documentation or authorization.[14]
Today, we see a rising tide of demonizing those seeking protection and opportunity in our great nation. The purported targets are immigrants who are here without authorization and particularly those who have committed crimes, but the sweeping actions taken by the Trump Administration call into question this explanation. The Administration’s methods are far different from what rational and reasonable immigration enforcement would look like. There are, for example, over one million people who have gone through the legal process and were denied any basis for staying in the United States.[15] A focus on this group, or on those without status who have committed violent crimes, would be an anticipated focus of federal enforcement actions. But what we are seeing is a far cry for these normal enforcement actions. Rather, we are seeing efforts like President Trump’s action in his first week of office attempting to override the U.S. Constitution by ending the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of birthright citizenship with a stroke of a pen.
On Monday, January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order purporting to end “birthright citizenship,” the constitutional rule that anyone born here is a citizen.[16] That order would apply, if allowed to go into effect, to a range of people, whether children of those with H-1B visas, the DREAMers who have only known the U.S. as their home, or children of those here without any legal authorization. Colorado, and a coalition of states, challenged this action as harmful to many Coloradans, detrimental to Colorado’s economic interests (as it would reduce the flow of key funding based on citizens in Colorado), and illegal.[17] In a parallel case, a judge ruled from the bench, calling this action the most unconstitutional action he had ever seen, asking “where were the lawyers” when this action was decided upon.[18]
In his first week of office, President Trump also stated that he would consider cutting off funding for states that did not support federal immigration enforcement efforts and would prosecute officials who declined to do so. These suggestions are also at odds with our Constitution, which protects the sovereign authority of states to make their own decisions on state law enforcement resources. In Colorado, we have confronted this unconstitutional action before, in the first Trump Administration, when we sued the U.S. Department of Justice because it unlawfully withheld needed law enforcement funds from Colorado sheriffs and police for not taking part in federal immigration enforcement. We prevailed in that lawsuit and secured the relevant grant funding—free from the illegal conditions.[19]
III. The Importance of Open Discourse
At this challenging moment for our republic, it can feel particularly difficult to see the spirit of e pluribus unum. But during this time, it is critical that we not lose all perspective. I have often remarked on former Colorado Governor Roy Romer’s maxim that “all truth is partial.” Romer’s statement captures the eternal wisdom that people can only see part of the truth. To him, that means when someone sees something differently than you, the appropriate response is to ask, “What part of the truth am I not seeing?”
It is not easy to put ourselves in the shoes of others. To support that perspective, we have worked on various projects with an organization called Unify America, which brings college students together from across the political divide to have civil conversations about polarizing issues. In their work with over 200 colleges, they have found that after participating students are more confident about discussing complex issues with people who hold different views, more likely to vote, and feel more empathy towards those who disagree with them.
When I talk about a commitment to openness to different viewpoints and discourse, a question I often get is how to approach the situation when someone challenges my right to exist. My answer, and a role model on how to handle such situations, is Colorado State Representative Brianna Titone, the first transgender state legislator in Colorado’s history. Consider, for example, that after an antitransgender bill was introduced in the Colorado State House along with hateful rhetoric, Representative Titone rose above the fray, stating, “I believe in respect for people, despite our differences. Yesterday, I felt disrespected and diminished.”[20] And after that speech, the Republican minority leader engaged her and promised to do better.[21]
Online echo chambers make fostering e pluribus unum and personal relationships hard. It is simply too easy to hate online. An antidote must involve deliberative in-person public forums that allow us to encounter respectfully those with whom we disagree. As Colorado State University Professor Martín Carcasson and his co-author Melissa Milios Davis explained, “[b]y intentionally creating spaces where diverse groups of local people can engage with one another as people—not as algorithm-curated voting blocs—genuine conversations about common challenges can spark empathy, understanding and solutions.”[22] These genuine conversations can involve what has been called “radical listening.”[23]
The premise of listening to others is that they are worth listening to. That’s what e pluribus unum is about—an inclusive republic. Consider the enduring teaching of President Lincoln after the Civil War in his Second Inaugural Address: “With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds . . . and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
* * *
We live in a time of rising demonization and polarization. All of us must do our part to hold onto critical virtues like empathy, radical listening, and humility. As we do so, we can heed the lesson taught by Fred Rogers (of the beloved children’s television series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood), as described by journalist Tom Junod:
Fred was a man with a vision, and his vision was of the public square, a place full of strangers, transformed by love and kindness into something like a neighborhood. That vision depended on civility, on strangers feeling welcome in the public square, and so civility couldn’t be debatable. It couldn’t be subject to politics but rather had to be the very basis of politics, along with everything else worthwhile.[24]
Thank you for taking this lesson seriously, working to live up to the example of Governor Ralph Carr, and recognize that our nation’s motto of e pluribus unum is worth fighting for.
[1] U.S. Const. amend. XIII
[2] U.S. Const. amend. XIV
[3] U.S. Const. amend. XV
[4] George Washington, Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island (Aug. 18, 1790), in The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 6, at 284–86 (Mark A. Mastromarino ed., Univ. Press of Va. 1996), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135
[5] Id.
[6] Phil Weiser, Prepared Remarks: The Courage to Bear Witness: Standing Together to Create Bonds of Humanity, Colo. Att’y Gen. (Sept. 25, 2024), https://coag.gov/blog-post/prepared-remarks-the-courage-to-bear-witness-standing-together-to-create-bonds-of-humanity-sept-25-2024/.
[7] Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sermon: Loving Your Enemies, 1963.
[8] Adam Schrager, The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story (2008).
[9] Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944).
[10] Jon Meacham, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels (2018).
[11] Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (Mar. 4, 1861), Nat’l Archives, https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/inaugtxt.html.
[12] Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857).
[13] Abraham Lincoln, Speech on the Dred Scott Decision (June 26, 1857), Teaching Am. Hist., https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/speech-on-the-dred-scott-decision-3/.
[14] United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898).
[15] New York Times, Asylum in America, by the Numbers (Nov. 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/us/politics/migrant-crisis-border-asylum.html
[16] Executive Order 14160, Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, Federal Register Vol. 90, No. 18, January 29, 2025, pp. 8449-8450.
[17] New Jersey v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-10139 (D. Mass. Jan. 21, 2025).
[18] KUOW, Seattle Judge temporarily blocks Trump executive order on birthright citizenship (Jan. 2025) https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-judge-temporarily-blocks-trump-executive-order-on-birthright-citizenship
[19] Colorado v. United States Dep’t of Justice, No. 19-cv-00736-JLK (D. Colo. Apr. 23, 2020).
[20] Casey Parks, Trans Lawmaker Brianna Titone Tried Not to Stand Out. Then a Gunman Killed 5 at Club Q., The Washington Post (May 10, 2023), https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/05/colorado-brianna-titone-trans-issues/.
[21] Id.
[22] Melissa Milios Davis & Martín Carcasson, Opinion: Reimagining the Public Square: Coloradans Deserve Better, The Colorado Sun (Jan. 28, 2024), https://coloradosun.com/2024/01/28/opinion-reimagining-the-public-square-civil-discourse/.
[23] Carol Gilligan & Jessica Eddy, The Listening Guide: Replacing Judgment with Curiosity, Qualitative Psychology, 8(2), 141–151 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000213.
[24] Tom Junod, My Friend Mister Rogers, The Atlantic, Dec. 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/what-would-mister-rogers-do/600772/.