Tomorrow, for some people I know, will be just another holiday.
They will wake up late, barbecue (weather-permitting), drink Budweiser and Jack Daniel’s, and loudly exclaim how proud they are to be an American, imbibing the freedom with every gulp, and not a single one of them will think about how it all came to be.
Not one of them will think about how, 232 years ago, the men who garnered that freedom feared for their lives on that date, or how they spent the following decade fighting for the namesake of this holiday.
Not one will think about how, “four score and seven years” later, Lincoln stood in the fields of Gettysburg, PA, and asked our country to remain dedicated to the ideals held in 1776, the very same ideals that he felt so connected to: the freedom to live your life in peace, prosperity, and equality, and the conviction to keep that freedom alive.
Not one will think about how on a hot August day in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reasserted those rights, as a man among equals, regardless of race, religion, age, gender, or economic status.
Not one will think about how many Americans, from 1776 to 2008, had died fighting for that blessed freedom that we hold so dear.
Perhaps these people are too caught up with the fanfare and the fireworks, the burgers and the booze, to recognize that the very ground they stand on is hallowed, marked by 232 years of integrity, perseverance, vision, and belief in the paradigm of liberty that 55 men envisioned all those years ago.
Others will remember.
We will remember that those of us in dissent with the policies of our government are in good company - the company of Jefferson, Paine, and the Sons of Liberty; the men who dissented against their government in support of the basic freedoms of mankind. We will remember that even “the best laid plans of mice and men” will have problems, and we will remember that it is our duty to try to solve them.
We will remember our troops, currently fighting overseas in unpopular wars. We will remember that regardless of opinions on the policies that sent them there, they answered the 232-year-old call to serve. We will remember that we can disagree with the War they fight and still support the brave men and women who fight it.
We will remember that we are part of the “great experiment.” We will remember that freedom does ring “from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee, across the plains of Texas, from ‘Sea to Shining Sea.’”
This Independence Day, I humbly ask all Americans, at home and around the world, to take even a minute out of their busy day to do but one thing: remember.
On behalf of We The People Politics, I wish a safe, happy, healthy Independence Day to you and your families.
Sean,
This was GREAT! It was well writen and carefully thought out…this piece did the 232 years justice..4th of july is more than just a holiday to have bbq and drink booze guilt free, its a day to remember the vision of those 55 men and recognize if you are living up to it
More than 55 men, Kiwi. It was the vision of a nation. A vision to be free from oppression.
The 55 men were the ones who signed the Declaration of Independence, launching that vision into action. Obviously more have come after, but it seems to always be the bold few who pave the way for the many to come.
Man, the original framers of the Declaration of Independence were the first badasses of this continent… nothing like sticking it to the man by saying you’re gonna live and die a free man, regardless of what a bunch of stuck up aristocratic limeys 3000 miles away have to say about it.
The ultimate balls.