Singing an American Tune

We're thisclose to Independence Day which technically is tomorrow but, of course, in various ways, will be celebrated for at least a three-day weekend, assuming some of us haven’t already gotten a head start. Not intending to sound like a scold, but I am good at it, I wanted to offer some thoughts I’ve shared in previous years as we begin our celebrations.

A lot of us will cook raw meat over hot rocks, quaff malt, and barley beverages, play whiffle ball in the backyard, or just take it easy.  I believe, even those who gave their lives in the course of the wars fought for, in, and by this nation, wouldn't have a problem flipping a burger, draining a cold glass, or pitching an inning or two and letting it go at that. 

In a country where more and more and more of us identify politically as just red (Republican) or just blue (Democrat), with the other side always under suspicion, this holiday could be a much-needed reminder that two hundred and forty-eight years ago, patriots saw themselves as red, white, and blue. 

And tomorrow while we celebrate one of the world’s most inspiring documents, our Declaration of Independence, we can also do some long-overdue self-assessment and soul-searching as we ponder where we should be heading as a nation.

We’ve traded ‘e Pluribus Unum,’ (from many, one) to 'what's mine is mine, but what's yours is negotiable' even while promising one another over the next few days to think about those whose service in uniform makes what we call ‘the American Way of Life’ possible for many, but not all, of us.

There’s a line in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, right after those self-evident truths, which sets us apart from every other nation; where we proclaim each of us has “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In a perfect world, we should have devoted every day of the succeeding two hundred and forty-eight years that followed to expanding the definition of who exactly had those unalienable rights but along the way we’ve gotten sidetracked on our journey from the streets of Philadelphia in the heat of the summer of 1776 to the cities and towns of all sizes across our nation right now.

Quite frankly, unless and until we all share equally in those unalienable rights of ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’ we are lying to ourselves. We are the Shining City on the Hill, as Peggy Noonan once phrased it, for the rest of the world and from this nation’s birth, people have come from everywhere to live free, proud to be called an ‘American.’ 

We who have always lived in this society and enjoyed the protections our Declaration of Independence promised, and our Constitution and Bill of Rights guaranteed sometimes are blinded by our own good fortune and fail to see those among us who have been marginalized, disenfranchised, and deprived of what we’ve told one another is our birthright.

Freedom to be whomever we choose to be while acknowledging the happiness, joyfulness, and safety resulting from that freedom, is not intended just for some but for all of us. Freedom isn’t a pie that’s made smaller when it’s shared. It increases when more of us enjoy its blessings. Always.

Happy Independence Day to each of us and all of us as our inheritance as free people.
-bill kenny