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This is a much-requested replaying of Rich’s 2021 honoring of Independence Day. He takes some time to reflect on why we still should celebrate our nation's birthday even though our history has been imperfect
Today for my viewers and listeners, we're going to try something just a little bit different. I actually had a guest that had a schedule conflict and wasn't able to appear today, and I thought, I've had some ideas rattling around in my head. So I made a few notes and I'd like to share them with you today. I'm going to beg your forgiveness in advance.
But here we go.
I've been thinking about the way we celebrate birthdays. And think if on the occasion of someone's birthday, that everyone who knew that person, you know, whether it was on social media, or you know, actually knew them in person, offered a critique of their life, a condemnation for their past mistakes, and contempt for their aspirations, and pointed out every time they had failed to live up to their own ideals. You know, basically the opposite of hey, Best Wishes, Happy Birthday, we're glad you're here, despite your imperfections, and oh, clearly absent the hope you have many more birthdays to come. So I'm wondering, does that choice between birthday condemnation or birthday celebration apply to countries?
So if you could create a country today from scratch, clean sheet of paper, what type of country would you build? There's a lot of thought to it. How would you govern? How would you go about creating prosperity? How would you seek equality in your new country? What rules would there be? What opportunities would there be for a person who just wants to better their own lot, and perhaps the fortune of their families? What rights would the citizens have? What responsibilities would the citizens have? How would you choose leaders? How would the care of those in need be met? And how would personal initiative that leads to societal value be incentivized? And how would you protect your country against threats, both external and internal?
Those are pretty big things. How much power would the government for your new country have? How would you keep that power in check to avoid tyranny? Remember, it's your country, you can design it any way you wish, including crowning yourself, Royal Highness for life. Now consider this, if in your mind when you're thinking about those questions, you said, Well, I would not do "x" or I'd not do "y" that's well and good. But in forming a new country, you do have to make affirmative statements about what you would do-- what you would do and how you would design its government. And suppose you wanted your country to be an ideal, not just something for you to use, but something that would last for hundreds of years. How would you do it? How would you document it? Kind of a tough job, isn't it? Well, we mark Independence Day of the United States of America, because it was one of the pivotal times in creating a new country, a new and unique country and that-- the creation of that new and unique country, in my humble opinion is worth honoring and celebrating.
Now is the United States of America, a perfect country? The writers of the Constitution knew it was not then and presumably would know that today, we are not yet a perfect country. Thus, the first words in the preamble to the Constitution do not claim to form a perfect country, but to quote, "form a more perfect union" an improvement over the monarchy they fought a bloody war with. An improvement over the odd lot of independent colonies and that aspiration, forming a more perfect union, I think is something we should celebrate. Now, did our framers and founders get things 100% right in forming our new country? Well, that would be perfection. And let's face it, some sickening things did occur and do occur that we cannot and should not take our eyes from. Let's not shy away from the fact that African men and women were enslaved, that twelve United States presidents owned slaves, and that eight (Presidents) owned slaves while in office. Black slaves sent south was a large scale, forced migration. That happened. Also, as early as the 1700's, there were colonists opposed to slavery and by 1827 some 130 anti-slave societies were active in the United States and you know where they were active? In slave states in the south, for the most part. Anti-slavery groups continued to build throughout the period leading up to and during the U.S. civil war. And also on a parallel track with this awful part, that various states beginning as early as 1774, began entering anti-slavery laws and putting those into effect. Now look, there's a lot more to this history. We can't cover it all here. The Three-fifths Compromise that a black person was only three-fifths of a person, of course, since repealed, but that was there. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan, which required President Grant to send the United States Army into the south to combat them. The Jim Crow laws that have since been abolished, that denied people accommodations, opportunity based solely on the color of their skin. And I know that during my own lifetime, which that's not that long, not that short, either. But during my lifetime, black men and women had to fight to get into state-supported schools, and that the Civil Rights Act was passed, as was the Voting Rights Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, and provisions for Affirmative Action, all necessary due to the circumstances of the time, and at least now widely supported. So let's learn from our history.
Let's look at it fearlessly. And let's understand that it's difficult. In fact, it's impossible to remedy imperfections in the past, any more than it is or was possible to create a perfect society then or now. And also understand that scars from past discriminations linger as do forms of current inequalities. That does not mean we should not strive for a more perfect union. Nor does it mean that the aspirations of the framers and founders and their progress should not be celebrated. And I believe that the founders and framers would want us to continue eliminating any and all barriers to the fundamental right of each citizen to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All of us. Eliminate those barriers. Now consider this, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, the most powerful army and navy in the world were both arrayed against rebellious English subjects. Now the British Army did not have F-15's or nuclear bombs, but they had the most modern weapons of war and the skills to use them. They wanted to subdue and eliminate the colonists declaring freedom from England. And the Redcoats committed atrocities against those they called treasonous. Without going into a great amount of detail, punishment of traitors included hanging to the point of unconsciousness then being revived and disemboweled, and that didn't end it.
So when you have fifty-six brave and imperfect men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and they mutually pledged in that document that our lives and our fortunes and our sacred honor, these were not people unaware of the danger they faced, or that they had little to lose. In fact, they were some of the most accomplished people of the time, and they had acquired great wealth. They knew they were taking on enormous risks, and they put everything on the line for the formation of their new country, a country based on ideas, and while not perfect, the United States of America has become the country known for its ingenuity. American inventions have changed the world for the better. America is envied for its freedom, for its rule of law, for its generosity, for its compassion. It's a beacon that beckons others to come to America to seek their fortune; lots of different people from lots of different places at many different times.
And we can choose E Pluribus Unum out of many one or further and further micro divisions and antagonisms. So Happy Independence Day, America, let us all strive for a more perfect union, together, let's embrace the aspirations of the founders unless there is a better way and a new place to start a new country, let's accept the fact we're all here, now. No matter if you came to this great country today, or if your ancestors immigrated 400 years ago, if your bloodline includes enslaved people or perhaps your tribe hunted the forests, the operative question is, where do we go from here? The ideals are worthy. The structure and mechanisms for self-government are available to us. Let's together resist the hijacking of those rights by the entrenched political parties. Let's demand that they act better. Let's reward them for seeking solutions instead of seeking political victories over the other side. Let's reject all of the voices that seek to inflame and divide us. Let's embrace each other as human beings first, and then as Americans striving to create a more perfect union. The ideals and the aspirations that set the cornerstone of this country are worthy. They're worthy of being celebrated. Our history is worthy of being studied and our future is worthy of working together to get to a better place. I hope you all have a great Fourth of July and God bless you and God bless the United States.
(Watch, Listen, or Read) Constructing Utopia: An Exploration of Ideal Nationhood and American History