Independence Day, The Fourth of July!

I have always loved the 4th of July, the mid-summer holiday with its nostalgic look back at the victories won by the Continental Soldiers, the American revolutionaries who threw off the yoke of tyranny and the oppression of kings. I loved it uncritically as a child. I loved it in its simplest way, without thing about it or questioning the lore in anyway…and a part of me still does.

As I grew older however, I discovered the real history of the revolutionary war, the real politics of the founders and the philosophies that drove them, as well as the numerous ways in which they were morally and ethically compromised (though “compromised” is too light of a word); they were compromised by war mongering and profiteering, they were compromised by slave-holding and the exclusion of women from governance; they were compromised by religious intolerance and they were compromised by greed that drove them against the First People.

As I learned more about these historical-realities it became self-evident that the nation was founded on a carefully balanced set of ideals that the founders themselves did not have the courage to live up to.

Knowing what I know now, after a lifetime of study, it is fair to say that America was founded on a compact of lies, and though I do not love the real history with its countless tragedies, I do still love the American ideal as it was articulated by them in its simplest form.

The preamble to the constitution states that all people are created equal, endowed by the creator of us all with inalienable rights, the foremost of which are: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The self-evidentiary nature of these truths is the axiomatic principle upon which the American experiment rests.

We believe that these rights do not derive from government, they are an inherent feature of human existence; we hold that these rights do not belong to us because we are Americans, but that they belong to us because we are, and we understand the American purpose to be the defense of those rights, both within our borders and around the world…that is how it is supposed to be, and we are failing to live up to that responsibilities, both here at home and around the world.

The sad truth is this:

We have only ever paid lip service to these ideals, the articulation of which amounts to little more than wishful thinking and hope for a better tomorrow…today is the nation’s birthday…light the candles on the cupcake…close your eyes and blow.

Within our own borders we are trampling all over said rights, rights of self-determination that belong to everyone, to all citizens (women and men), including the immigrant and the resident-alien, our black and brown skinned sisters and brothers, the working poor, the homeless and every human being struggling to have their basic needs met…this is Un-American.

In America we have stripped women of their right to control their own bodies, of the right to consult privately with their doctors in regard to family planning, to use the best science and medical technology available to both prevent pregnancy when it is unwanted and to advance pregnancy when it is desired…and America women are dying because of this.   

In America out courts have declared against all good reason and judicial precedent that a president is above the law and immune from criminal culpability if they violate the law in connection with their official duties as president…never mind the fact that a president’s official duties can never be construed to include law-breaking, as the chief law enforcement officer the president’s duty is to uphold the law, to support and defend the constitution, not to undermine it.

America has always failed to live up to our ideals…maybe it is wrong to expect that we can do better…maybe this is America.

The entire rationale for the American experiment rests on the rights we see as belong to personhood, to each person and to every person, not more or less because of any group of people that they are members of.

The expression of these truth…truths which we hold to be self-evident as stated in the Declaration of Independence and codified in the United States Constitution, together with all of its amendments and the Bill of Rights, did not at the same time they were made into law abolish the institutions of slavery, give women the right to own land, to vote and many other modes of self-determination that we had come to take for granted by the end of the twentieth century; neither did it make illegal our aggression expansionism and the many wars we waged against the sovereign nations of the First People. Our stated belief in these self-evident truths and our inalienable rights, did not prevent the United States of America from entering a campaign of genocide and extermination against them.

The founders applied these principles to themselves and to their “peers” (land-holding white males of European descent), they used those principles to justify their separation from the dominion of the British Empire, they used these principles to protect their property after the War of Independence had been won, but they refused to extend these principles to everyone within the aegis of American power, and we continue to live with the repercussions of those basic failures today.

When I reflect on the 4^th of July…Independence Day, I see a day to celebrate our freedom, and our victory in the Revolutionary War; I still believe there is much to celebrate in that.

As a veteran, I know that war and combat create many opportunities for selflessness and displays of courage that most human beings cannot help but admire and applaud, even though the antecedents of war and the causes of conflict are always unjust, morally vacant and abhorrent.

I know in my heart that war, always and without exception represents a failure of human beings to live up to the purpose we were created for. In my heart, I want to celebrate the revolutionaries, their courage, the flag which unifies us as a nation, but I find it increasingly difficult.

The story of America, beginning on July 4^th, is one that has many bright moments, but we remain a foolish, cold-hearted and ignorant people if we do not at the same time recognize the millions of slaves who built our first cities, who farmed the plantations that fed the country and served as the foundation of international trade.

We must recognize the laborers who established our first industries and the millions of people belonging to sovereign nations that we crushed in our westward expansion, as we starved and slaughtered them without mercy, displacing them, outlawing their religion and customs, erasing their languages as we attempted to eradicate their heritage.

I find it difficult to celebrate, and I would like to know who among us, knowing that history, finds it easy?

A person would have to be a monster to be unmoved by the tragedies that ensued after the signing of our Declaration of Independence.

Today one of America’s two major political parties is advocating policies that have stripped women of bodily autonomy and criminalized any action that might be taken to assist them with a relocation to another state where they might be able to exercise their freedom. They are openly discussing ways that they might ignoring the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the principle of birthright citizenship. They are not talking about amending the constitution further, they are talking about ignoring the law, rounding up migrants, and those who they deem to be dissidents and putting them in camps to be disposed of. They would raise the voting age, disenfranchise the young, make it more difficult for the elderly and the disabled and the poor to cast their vote…today all American’s are in grave peril

The 4th of July should be a time of soul searching and deep reflection and community, forget about the flag waving and jingoism.

Ask yourself what it means to be an American; consider the immigrant and the refugee, the stolen people, the enslaved people, the conquered people, the vanquished people…and then consider the revolutionary.

We are their descendants…all of us come from all of them, the immigrant, the refugee, the stolen, the enslaved, the conquered, the vanquished; we are their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren…we are one people with a common history, and a common set of ideals.

We are a great nation, if and only if we remember the whole story, the real story…save the fireworks for the moment when we can embrace the truth of it without fear…though not without shame.