Let Us Aspire

Yesterday was Independence Day here in the USA. Treason Day, in the apocryphal words of the late QEII, it's a day when many of us celebrated the birth of the nation, and some of us gnashed teeth in anger over the current state of our government.

Mark me among the celebrators, and note that I pick the significant nit (is that an oxymoron?) that it's Independence Day rather than The 4th. Because I think it matters. There is a whole lot to celebrate this year and every year, because America has been one of the greatest and most beneficial experiments in the 6000 year history of civilization.

The values espoused in the Declaration of Independence and codified in the Constitution have served as a blueprint for what successful societies that value their citizens should aspire to.

Even when we fail to reach those lofty goals, in reaching for them we improve not only our own lives but also the lives of those around us and around the world.

Even when we consider the sins of the nation's past, including the scourge of slavery that nearly rent the nation in two some 160 years ago, we can embrace the ideals set forth in those magnificent documents.

Frederick Douglass understood the aspirational nature of the nation, as expressed in the Declaration and Constitution. From his legendary Fourth Of July speech in 1852:

Now, take the constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single proslavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.

I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from “the Declaration of Independence,” the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago.

Douglass understood that societies evolve. Even as he condemned the scourge of slavery and the failure of the country's leaders to live up to the standards they set, he revered those standards, those lofty goals that we pursue to this day.

That is how I believe we should view our nation, on its birthday and on every other day. The core principles espoused two and a half centuries ago, born of the Enlightenment and set to paper, are among the greatest achievements of the human mind, and should be celebrated even when we decry our government, high and low, for failing to honor them.

Because, we should always remember, our nation and our government are not the same thing. Governments change, while the principles upon which the nation was founded do not.

We can disagree with the actions of any of our elected representatives, and we can do so loudly and proudly. That is among the many rights protected by those old white men from the late 18th century, and their personal failings do not diminish the brilliance of what they wrought.

I know it feels good to decry our fellow citizens for supporting the other team, but, excepting those who denounce and reject the nation's core values of liberty, I'd suggest the rest have a lot more in common than we are inclined to believe in these fraught times.

Yes, I do indeed take issue with people who'd tear down America, because the overwhelming majority of them would replace her with something terrible, something that has been tried many times and inflicted misery, poverty, and oppression every single time. Rather than say "we have these core values that built the greatest nation in all of history, and which have been a blueprint for so many others," and put effort into honoring those values and guiding the nation in their direction, they embrace a philosophy of envy, of theft, and of oppression of anyone who disagrees with them.

It is my hope, in my daily discourse and in my blogging, to bring some of these folks back from the brink, because I think many of them do not actually realize what it is they are espousing. That they have been lured toward dangerous shoals by a siren song, but that there is still time to convince them to turn back toward the good path.

America has always been on a path. The goals of the Declaration and the values of the Constitution have never been honored in full, but we have taken many steps toward those goals and values, and we benefit all but the destroyers with each additional step. I am not prone to religious analogies, but those who would have us stray from that path are Great Deceivers, promising so enticingly that which cannot be achieved.

If yesterday filled you with sadness and despair at the state of our nation, I do urge you to take a step back and look around at all the good people in your vicinity. They are there. Not all of them may be on your political team, but you will find that many that don't still share the same core values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The only way forward is in bonding over that common ground, and yes, it can be done. If Frederick Douglass could look at the fabric of the nation while slavery was still the law of the land and find reason for hope, encouragement, and aspiration, so can you.