Hello World and Happy Fourth of July!
It is the 236th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence for the United States of America, this nation’s birthday. To launch my blog I would like to reflect on what the Fourth of July means for us as a country and on how far we have come since 1776. For me, this brings up the question of what our founding fathers would have thought of what their descendants have become and how we have changed.
Through the eyes of our forefathers what have we become? Clearly, from such a far off perspective our nation must look awesome beyond anything that they could have imagined. They lived in an agricultural society where life for all but the most fortunate had short and brutal lives. Now we have not only built an industrial world but also gone beyond that to create a technology-based society that delegates manufacturing to far off parts of the globe. Our military patrols all of the oceans of the world effectively unopposed. We mostly stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We eat as much as we want; food so rich that diabetes is epidemic. We live in cities that are so interconnected by the Internet and global distribution of goods that the boundaries between most other nations and us are becoming blurred.
“But” you ask “what about our crises and divisions?” Yes, there are many problems that hold our attention. I guess you could say that from the near perspective things are a little ropey right now. Seven years ago we all thought that real estate only ever increases in value, too many so-called experts confidently reminded us of that. Twenty years ago there was talk of how history had come to an end. Thirty years ago we thought we would be colonizing Mars by now, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Now we worry about our political agendas, about health care, the cost of health care, national debt, and college debt, the banks and on and on.
Is it unfair or foolish to look at the contemporary nation from the long perspective of two hundred and thirty-six years ago? I don’t think so. In fact, I think it is silly not to. In the age of the Revolutionary War we were even more divided. The fundamental question of whether to break away from The Crown turned brothers and sisters against one another. Slavery and the prejudice that underpinned it divided those that held to the cause of independence. I hope that we never again have to face the kind of struggles that it took to resolve those issues. There have been many crises that we as a nation have had to work hard to resolve. Looking back at those problems with hindsight obscures the difficulties and uncertainties of actually trying to solve them. It is the same angst ridden struggle that we face in the problems of today. Our forefathers faced their future, which is our past, with the same trepidation.
We will carry on making choices, for better and worse and we will continue to be divided. Today is a chance to remember that, in spite of our divisions, we are in the same country that was founded so long ago and that the gains far outweigh the suffering along the way; we are divided as ever on common ground. So let’s take stock and be mindful of the very real present, let’s not lose ourselves in some idealized past or fear too much the future that we do not yet inhabit. The present is just a point along the way but let’s take time to enjoy it and be grateful.
Happy birthday America
