Happy 4th of July!
There are probably innumerable topics one could find to write on relating to the celebration of the independence of our country. Almost so many that one wouldn’t know which one to choose. However, as usual, I’ll probably pick the one that no one else would pick, thereby making myself unique, though odd. (I’m actually just picking the topic that was most on my mind yesterday…I’m not really trying to be unique ☺ )
It occurred to me as I sat on the sidewalk in West Park, Ohio, a small region on the west side of Cleveland, the similarity of events which we experience on holidays in our country. Not any grandiose thought, or even a very deep one. But an interesting one nonetheless. My family and I went to mass, watched a medium-sized parade at a close family friend’s house, did yard work, had a cookout with relatives, and watched fireworks yesterday. With the exception of mass and yard work, that day is probably the one experienced by countless others across this nation. It was odd for me to think as we were driving at one point during the day that almost everyone I knew was probably doing at least one of the same things I was. Whether 90 minutes, 3 hours, or 18 hours away, my friends and relatives most likely watched a parade as I watched one, ate hamburgers or brats as I ate several of each, or lay on a blanket and watched fireworks under the same sky I did. In small ways, everyone celebrates differently, yet there is also an interconnectedness. A unification. A web that connects everyone across this continent.
Of course, not every person in the United States loves these states as much as others do. Not all of them have been here as long as I have, though most have probably been here longer. We don’t all share a language (since the people in front of us at the fireworks were definitely speaking one that I didn’t). We don’t look like a uniform people. We listen to different music, celebrate different faiths, have different ethnic backgrounds, and eat different foods, perhaps to a greater extent than most nations of the world. It is freedom, independence, and democracy which unite us, but we are even divided concerning whether or not that independence and democracy should be spread. We certainly earned that title of “melting pot” which we were given so many years ago. Perhaps even more aptly-named, we are “The Great Experiment of Freedom.” The New World, as we were once called, was filled by men who dared to go where no men had gone before. Not geographically. But philosophically. And politically. It makes me wonder what other nations think of us, even now. Do they wonder at us, in Great Britain, for celebrating 200 and some years of independence: strained to the roots, burned to the ground, sometimes barely eking out our existence on this continent? They have been striving through on their rainy, cloudy isle for ten times as long as our nation has existed. Admittedly, the traditional first King of England, Egbert of Wessex, did not take the throne until 802. However, his ancestor, Cerdic founded the House of Wessex, reigning from 519 to 534, and the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, traces her ancestry back to him, providing the ruling power of that isle with almost 1500 years of history.
What then has our meager offering of two centuries given the world? Are we still nothing more than an experiment? A “Great” experiment, albeit, but are we still an unproven one? Let’s look at the “hypothesis” our Founding Fathers set down for all to read:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Theologians, philosophers, political scientists, economists, sociologists, and historians can argue what, where, when, how, and to what degree those goals were reached. But the book hasn’t been closed. The data is still being collected. Thus far, most Americans would say that all results point to the hypothesis being correct. And I would agree with them. For those that disagree, let them remember that the men who sat and spoke and argued and fought in a little room in Philadelphia never said that everything would be perfect in two centuries or less. They never claimed that they were perfect and they certainly didn’t claim that their government was either. But they did say that they were going to try and that they hoped their children would too. And every successive generation has stood up and taken their place since then—promising that they too would give it their very best shot and could only hope that their children, and their children’s children would do the same or better. So far, we have a perfect record. We’ve never given up, we’ve never stopped fighting. In turn, my parent’s generation will step down and my generation will step up. Or rather, we are stepping up. With God as our witness, we continue that experiment in freedom, the experiment in giving man what God gave him first, his free will. Perhaps then, being an experiment isn’t such a bad thing then. Because it means we haven’t failed yet. And as long as our motto remains, “In God We Trust,” we won’t fail. And we will pass down our legacy to our children and our children’s children until the end of time.
God Bless America!
Gabe Jakubisin is proud to be an American and can be reached at svcblogger@gmail.com!
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