Americans in the 21st Century have little time for reflection. Our lives are filled with today, maybe tomorrow and a constant flood of information. A suggestion to reread the centuries-old founding documents of the United States before July 4th would likely strike most as really dumb. What’s the point?
Those who do pause before our Independence Day to review what Thomas Jefferson, for the most part wrote, will learn again the courageous and completely unprecedented journey into the unknown, the signatories and those they represented, began on July 4, 1776. These people, their families, and their neighbors gambled their lives and livelihoods on a theory.
While European intellectuals of the time (“the Enlightenment”) wrote about and discussed the principles of democracy, independence, people’s “inalienable rights”, they had never been acted upon.
The genius of the 1787 Constitution was that it organized a government to implement them.
It’s difficult in 2015, to understand the truly revolutionary quality of sub-divisions of very subordinate private citizens deciding to challenge the 18th Century’s Superpower and to renounce the protection and substantial economic/commercial advantages it brought.
After reading the Declaration of Independence, it’s impossible not to wonder whether Americans today are brave enough to risk everything, even their lives, for the common good. Do we even have people who could conceptualize such a radically different path, convince us to take it despite inevitable sacrifice and then lead us forward to realize its promise? Could we “… mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor?
In 1776, colonists stated their grievances against the King and his government in the Declaration. They enumerated the harm they had suffered because of his ignorance, carelessness and the arbitrary imposition of his will.
In the 21st Century, Americans experience similar injury and frustration, but not because of a dictatorial foreign king. Are we our own worst enemies?
Dysfunctional legislatures, why? Do we ignore the clear will of the majority for selfish reasons? Are the rights and interests of Americans victimized by blinkered thoughts and their outsized influence? Does too much information lead us to focus only on what affects us? Do we ignore the broad impact on America of a globalized world?
Perhaps worth thinking about this Independence Day.
Judith Lang says
Good one, Tom
Martha Holland says
A thoughtful and provocative rendition of the meaning of Independence Day. Thanks, Tom.