I Don't Think July 4th is Supposed to be about the Military

Is it just me, or is the Fourth getting to be a bit jingoistic?

I camped at a public campground this weekend and was struck by how many patriotic displays had a military theme. In fact, the camp decoration contest was won by a trailer that looked like a shrine to the U.S. Marines. Perhaps this is natural in war time, but it doesn't seem to me like the Fourth was always this bombs-bursting-in-airish.

Don't get me wrong, I don't slight the men and women who sacrifce for our freedoms. It just seems to me the Fourth of July is about something bigger. It's one thing to die for your country. It's another to have a country worth dying for.

The words of the Declaration of Independence are still revolutionary: All men are created equal. We still haven't delivered on the "all" part of that equation and in fact our history is the tale of trying to live up to that revolutionary "all." Talking about the Declaration on July 4 may seem quaint but when you consider the current struggle for LGBT equality or the popularity of certain politicians who proclaim America as a Christain nation who's laws, presumably, favor only Christians, then the words "All men are created equal" retain their revolutionary power.

It's hard standing up for equal treatment for people who aren't like us, and our nation and even we as individuals have failed at times living up to that principle. But it's our nation's founding principle. As long as we don't abandon that principle in favor of security alone or the rights of the majority, our nation will be worth fighting and dying for.

That's what we should celebrate on July 4th. Yes, we should honor the men and women in uniform who died in defense of our founding principle, but to stop there and not get to the Declaration is to forget what it means to be American.

Irony Alert

Signs posted on major highways into DC:

"July 4th Events Downtown. Avoid Delays. Take Metro."

"Our Country" -- It's an Idea, Not a Place

NOTE: This is a post from May 2007. It came to mind this morning on this Independence Day. Happy July 4th.


While in Indy I was tasked with managing a business luncheon. arriving early at the luncheon room at the hotel, I met our wait staff person, a middle-aged Chinese woman who has worked at the Hyatt for 30 some years. While waiting for lunch to begin, she told me with obvious pride of her eldest son who serves in the Army Corps of Engineers and who has been stationed around the world, including Afghanistan, and who is now stationed here in DC. She told me how while driving to work she sometimes worries about him, asking God to keep him safe and how three times w/in 15 minutes her cell phone would ring and it would be him calling to let her know he was okay.

When the luncheon was over I was saying my thank yous and said to her, "please convey my thanks to your son for his service to our country."

"Our country." I thought about those words later. Me, this Midwestern white gay boy and this woman from another land and culture, whose family is in harms way for this idea called "America."

Our country really is an idea, not a place, a dream worth emigrating to and defending.

No terrorist can destroy that dream. We can only do that ourselves.