We hold these truths (and trials) to be self evident

 

Fireworks seen from Capitol Hill, 2021

Today is our country's 250th anniversary.  We will celebrate it as we have for years, with the Capitol Hill 4th of July Parade sometimes led off by our local marching band followed by, most probably, a late breakfast at Mr. Henry's.  We will probably take a pass on tonight's fireworks--they're sorta late, it's hot, and fireworks are great for a little while but they get dull after a while.  I can imagine folks on the mall tonight taking pictures with their phones of the fireworks for the first fifteen minutes and then reading their phones for the remainder of the display (it will get smoky, as the air in DC stops moving starting around June 21st and doesn't start moving again until about September 3rd.).

I believe the day is a celebration of both the central truth of the United States, that all men are created equal, and the central trial of the United States, the challenge of living up to our central truth.  That is the tension the United States has struggled with for the past two and a half centuries, between our ideas and making those ideas real for all, between those who do not believe all men are created equal, both here in the US and abroad, and those who believe that all are created equal, deserving of dignity and shared responsibility.

When the men, mostly wealthy and often slaveholders, who founded our country declared independence from England, many had selfish motives: seizing more land west of the Appalachians from Native Americans who lived there, not paying taxes for the defense of the colonies going back to the Seven Years War (French and Indian War as we call it here) that the English were levying, maintaining control of the colonies' economies--all of which made up their "pursuit of happiness."  In 1776, the right to vote was restricted for the most part to property owning white men.  The men who signed the Declaration of Independence were the beneficiaries of a political and economic system which depended on the inequality of men.

But they still put those pesky inspiring words, "all men are created equal" in their Declaration.  A decade later, some of these men would begin a newly proposed constitution with, frankly, equally inspiring words, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect union..."  At the time "a more perfect union" referred to a replacement of the decidedly imperfect Articles of Confederation.  But it is also a challenge to their Posterity: to strive to make an ever more perfect union.  And to do so, they had to live up to their proclaimed truth of the previous decade, that all men are created equal.

The United States were decidedly imperfect in 1787.  Recognizing our nation's imperfections and aspiring to make the nation better have been the source of our nation's trials since its founding.  Among our nation's greatest trials has been recognizing that, indeed, all men are created equal.  Between recognizing the humanity of the slaves that helped build our country and the Native Americans who preceded European settlement, by granting the right to vote, first to non-property owning white men but eventually to African-Americans, Native Americans, women of all races and immigrants from Asia, and making justice apply equally to all men, no matter their station in life (we have always had men who manage to live lives above the law that others must live by), our central truth has experienced trials since that day in Philadelphia in 1776 when it was first declared.

The source of my patriotism is that the United States will always strive to be a more perfect union.  We have a tendency to take several steps forward toward that ideal, then take a few steps back, as there are many who benefit from an imperfect union, from preserving inequality.  When I was a freshman in college in 1979, most college graduates in the US looked like me, a WASP male. Fast forward almost 50 years (shit!) and most people graduating college are women.  When I was freshman, 14% of college freshman were of color.  Today it is 44%.  When the 44th President of the United States was born his parents' interracial marriage was illegal in sixteen states.  In my lifetime, possibility and opportunity has spread to many of those who would have have been denied those sources of hope when I was born.  Such improvement in the lives of many has been accompanied by resentment by others.  There have always been those in the US who believe that life in the US is essentially a zero sum game, that rising waters do not lift all boats.  

There is always resistance to positive change.  Those who benefited from the status quo via their economic or political power often manage to exert reversals to improvements in the lives of others.  The wealthy have always been jealous to protect their power and for most of our history has been quite successful in preserving it through a system of justice which was not applied equally to all men.  Likewise those who treasure their political power have attempted to maintain it by assorted forms of electoral chicanery.   

The US has navigated many severe trials in its history, some quite traumatic such as the Civil War, the Great Depressions of the 1870s and the 1930s, the first calamitous months of the Second World War.  Many would argue that we are experiencing a major trial today in which many Americans prefer authoritarian leadership with supplicant followers in and out of government are at odds with those who want a government which represents the interests of all of the people.  Though I detest the actions of our current president and his enablers and benefactors, I'm confident the US can emerge from the trial of these times as it has from far worse threats in its history.  Such is the benefit of reading history.

So I am, yes, proud, of our 250th anniversary.  Our central truth has inspired people here and around the world.  And the never-ending trials which it has endured and will continue to face ensure that it will continue to inspire generations to come.

It's time to get a Dunkin Donuts July 4th donut with a cup of coffee and go watch a parade.