God Bless America

For the fourth time in as many years, I spent Independence Day in a foreign country, nearly forgetting that the day had arrived. It isn’t that I don’t value what the day represents. I try to remember days like that. Others that are on the radar include December 11th, June 6th, and September 11th. I guess that I will just blame the lack of fireworks, or that I just fundamentally take for granted the blessing it is to be an American.

Unfortunately, for many, that blessing no longer is a badge of honor, but rather a mark oh shame. It has become something that people try to hide as if it were some giant, crimson ‘A’ emblazoned on their chest, evoking some terrible sin of which they are horribly ashamed. Honestly, reading articles and blogs with tones that disparaged the honorable occasion that July 4th ought to be was tremendously frustrating. Such comments do not reflect a greater understanding of our country’s current failings; they represent a complete lack of understanding in regards to our nation’s history. When we fail to respect and revere the celebration of American independence we show ourselves to lack any understanding of what America even means.

American democracy was never about being right; it was about having the system in place to make it right. This is the cost of freedom. When we allow ourselves to be free, we allow for the myriad despicable things that such freedom creates. Contemporary critics of America – not of Bush’s America, the critics of America as an idea – fail to recognize a fundamental truth. Governments, especially democracies, represent (or ought to represent) their citizens. Given how flawed and foolish we are as individuals, why is it any surprise that our governments are flawed and foolish? It isn’t perfect and it never will be. It isn’t supposed to be perfect. At best what we can hope for is the possibility that we can right our wrongs and correct ourselves when we find that the path we desire and the path we tread have ceased to converge. That is why America is beautiful.

Case and point: for a few years now, the existence of the Guantanamo Bay prison has been a point of heated debate. Whether it was right or wrong to create such a prison is not even the question – at one time, it seemed necessary to those making decisions. What is so very right and wonderful is that we debated its existence. We could criticize, attack and accuse the system that produced it and, as we found most recently, we could even eliminate (or begin to change) that which we saw as an aberration in the system. The cause of people who are viewed as enemies can find voice in our own courts and their rights defended against our own government. Where else is such change and debate as heated and as intertwined with the fate of a nation? And Guantanamo is not the only example.

Perhaps the most poignant example of the relentless nature of the American experiment was the civil rights movement. To many critics, both then and now, the injustices – which were unforgivably awful – represented a complete failure of the American democratic system. To support that line of thought is to miss what the Civil Rights movement accomplished. A minority group which was discriminated against and relegated to poverty and political weakness found in the system the means to inspire change. Martin Luther King did not struggle against American democracy; he struggle for it. That minority group was able to oppose and transform the majority. Hundreds of years worth of oppression fell to pieces (or at least began to crumble to the ground) as the product of a people who would no longer live without their portion of the American democratic tradition. This was not the low point of American democracy; it was American democracy in its purest form.

This July, wherever you find yourself, take a moment to remember what that tradition is that we hold so dear. Remember the leadership of Washington, the writings of Madison, and the vision of Jefferson. Remember the resolve of Lincoln, the hopefulness of Wilson, the compassion of Roosevelt, and the insurmountable courage of King. And remember that the crisis that we face are not indications of flaws or failures in the America that we have put our hope in, they are merely another opportunity for that America to show its incomparable capacity to overcome. The experiment continues. The dream is yet alive. God bless America.

Goodnight, and good luck.