July 4th is a Symbol of Unity We Should All Embrace
There are two conflicting visions in the United States today. There are those who believe our history is one of progress. That our country was founded on a call for freedom. That people held inalienable rights which preexist government, and the role of government was to protect those rights, not grant them. The shortcoming of our founding was the failure of not living up to those ideals, but progress has always marched on, and the real history of the United States is one of overcoming our flaws. Our inauspicious start aside, the tree of liberty went from including only a select few and eventually bloomed, extending its branches to include every citizen of this nation.
The other view of the history of the United States does not begin in 1776, but instead in 1619. This is the view that America has been evil since its inception. It was built of the twin backs of genocide and slavery. That the Institutions which govern our lives play the role of oppressor, and we the governed, the oppressed. The system itself is fruit of the poisonous tree and must be overturned. The history upon which we stand should be razed to the ground and upon the ashes we could build something new which, would finally lead toward a more just and equitable society. The American dream was never real, because it was founded by white men for white men, and that fact can never change.
These visions cannot coexist. They have led to unending conflict which often arises from issues, even where the majority of Americans are actually in league with one another. Those underlying ways in which the two sides see the world generate a belief that the other side is immoral, incompetent, or corrupt. This attribution of motives, these accusations of malice, have led towards levels of polarization that has not been seen in the country for a very long time.
The issues themselves divide us politically, but the underlying assumptions each side hold about the nature of reality divide us morally. It is a mistake for our country to move forward without recognizing these underlying assumptions that divide us. The surface conversations over policy, the nuts and bolts of government, these are not the things at the heart of the heat we all feel rising, and arguing over the proper tax code will never lower the temperature. What we need is to have discussions that delves deeper than the surface and touches the undercurrent that continually sweeps us all along for the ride. The United States is neither evil nor benevolent. Its history is complex and the narrative we chose to cling to sets up our entire political world view.
Today is the fourth of July and it is a day that all Americans should celebrate. It is the day that the Declaration of Independence decreed that “all men are created equal.” A day that should unify the country, because the history we share is the only common thread that binds us together. Those who think of the history of this country as nothing but tyrannical, reduced to a caricature of the master/slave dynamic. One in which racism, classism, and sexism make up the mortar which hold the bricks of the nation together. This view of history is wrong. Just as the people who fail to recognize the reality of the shortcomings of our nation are wrong. The failure to live up to the values our founding documents espoused from the beginning. The hypocrisy of crying out for freedom from tyranny while allowing manacles to bind the wrists of human beings kept in subjugation and treated as chattel. The view that whitewashes the stains of injustice is just as ugly as the view which ignores the triumphs.
We should celebrate July 4th because we are all free today as a result of the events set in motion that day in 1776. We should celebrate Juneteenth because that is the day that we embraced the black members of this country as we should have from the day of its inception. We should celebrate August 26th and remember that as the day the United States granted the freedoms that men have always enjoyed to the fairer sex. Embracing the good of our history is paramount to keeping our country united. It is possible to be critical of America while recognizing that our imperfect country has been the story of evolution. The symbols that unite us all should be held high. The fourth, the flag, the founding, these things belong to all of us. If the history of civil rights has taught us anything it is that America when confronted face to face with the ugliness of reality is capable of becoming what the framework set in motion all those years ago, a country that protects the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for all.
