For Independence Day
From “Schoolhouse Rock,” “There’s gonna be fi-i-ire-works!’
Since tomorrow is the National Birthday, and I’ve been a lot more open about my political opinions than good manners would normally allow, I think I ought to explain the source of my opinions.
I remain a fanatical American patriot. For all our flaws, we’re the only country on Earth that really tries to do better. We ARE great; we don’t need to go backward toward some fictional past. Our sins — slavery, treatment of the indigenous population, laws that burdened the poor — are shared by every other nation and people on Earth. As the minister at my church said when I was in high school, “original sin is the only theological doctrine that can be proven with objective evidence.” The difference is that eventually we try to fix those problems, something other nations *coughs, looks at Japan, Germany, Russia, China, England, France . . . * have been somewhere between “unenthusiastic” and “actively proud of the terrible stuff.” We have a long way to go, but at least most of us have started.
There is a lot of far-right criticism of what they call the ‘proposition nation,’ the idea that being an American means assenting to a set of principles even more than surviving birth within our borders. I ask them, what else IS a nation but a set of principles? Until recently, ’nations’ were nothing more than the property of whatever inbred dimwit occupied the fanciest chair in a particular geographic area, and could change if another inbred dimwit had a larger army or married a daughter of the first inbred dimwit. (See “history of the Hapsburgs” for how this works out, paying special attention to guys named ‘Carlos.’) Agreeing to act according to the rule of law instead of the whims of an inbred dimwit works out quite well for citizens and nations both.
What I most love is that “the Proposition Nation” has exceeded all others in creativity and productivity. Nobody even comes close. We’ve been the world’s largest economy for nearly 150 years, and our art and music leads the world. When the Allies won WWII, we created the Marshall Plan for the enemies we conquered and made them allies. We created the United Nations and NATO. We feed the world, entertain the world, and deservedly lead the world.
Tomorrow, remember the battle of Normandy Beach, the Civil Rights Movement, rock and roll, Aaron Copeland, ‘Casablanca,’ tacos, pizza, and WPA post office murals. Remember the First Amendment and the Civil Rights Amendments and the Internet. Remember that we won the Cold War with blue jeans and Coca Cola. We worry about keeping people out instead of building walls to keep people in. That’s the America I love, and that’s the one I will celebrate tomorrow.
God bless us and God Bless America.