Anyone with a smartphone can recite to you a list of friends, notables or maybe just people they follow who have decided not to celebrate July 4. With each passing day, the many accomplishments of this great country are minimized and distorted by a vocal minority now capable of dictating cultural norms.
So then why celebrate? What are we celebrating?
We celebrate the promise of liberty and justice for all. Even if we have fallen short of those promises from the inception of this country through to today, our founders created a country capable of change by popular consent and an arc capable of being bent towards the common good.
What largely separates the activists of today from the predecessors they claim to idolize is that the latter largely believed in the promise of the United States as a beacon on the hill. Civil rights leaders merely wanted to see the extension of this promise to all men and women so that they may know the fullness of liberty and freedom’s warm embrace.
The United States of America recognizes an expansive array of rights, but due to the immense privilege of our birth here, many Americans have come to regard these rights as serendipitous instead of as the result of steadfast resolve and prudence. It was by no accident that the Continental Army won The Revolutionary War; just as it is by no accident, the Union triumphed over the Confederacy. Each generation receives its hardships, and thus far, each generation has been able to rekindle the eternal flame of our forefathers and make this country the city upon the hill it was intended.
That is not to say history is without stains. Many July 4’s came and went while men were bound in the shackles of slavery and women were denied the ballot, but the sins of our past do not define the arc of our future.
So, in anticipation of next July 4, when you no doubt see the next round of naysayers of their own land, remind them of their birthright. The very rights they take for granted protect their speech, movement, land and all aspects of their life.
And for those that did celebrate this past holiday, remind yourself that it is not just an excuse for raucousness, but a solemn day, although don’t forget to enjoy.
“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863.
