Why We Celebrate

I meant to write this post yesterday, but I was too busy enjoying America's birthday, which of course meant good food, sunshine, fireworks, and perhaps an a beer or four. But it wouldn't have been a complete day without a conversation with a good and intelligent friend about the nature of the holiday, one that made me reflect profoundly on why we celebrate.

My friend rightly pointed out that while we celebrate independence, we just saw the Voting Rights Act struck down, and we continue to live in a country in which many are treated unequally and unfairly for too many reasons. We love the idea of freedom, and on the 4th of July we celebrate the freedom that was declared but still being won on that day in 1776, but today through various means and for various reasons we still deny that freedom to some. We are a nation founded on the idea of freedom but still overcoming a history and a legacy of fighting for true equality.

But the 4th of July isn't about denying the past, it's about imagining the future. And the only way we will create a better future is to have the mindset of 80's rock megaband TimBuk 3, "the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."

Like Americans of many political stripes I believe the founders would be horrified by the state of our nation; I think we have gotten away from their values. At the time they framed our country, the men who wrote the Constitution were the most forward thinking people on the planet. They weren't perfect, they left us problems to be solved, but they were (literally) revolutionary. Today we too often become shackled by their legacy rather than empowered by it. We get tied to past problems and don't look forward. Snippets of our past and ongoing struggles are painful reminders of what's wrong, but in the context of the American narrative they represent hurdles on a road leading in the right direction.

We have to believe this if we are going to make our world better and solve the problems we face. The 4th of July reminds us that we are all in this together as Americans. We look different, speak different, act different, but we all want the same thing: an equal opportunity, a real chance. Even as our nation's demographics shift, we are all held together by a belief in what makes us the same, not what makes us different. The 4th of July is a holiday for all of us as Americans and for the brighter future we want. That is why we celebrate.