If you had a moment to hop online this morning while waiting for a parade to start, this afternoon when anticipating the arrival of company, or this evening after making it home from a fireworks display, you may have been treated to seeing image after image of children, families, neighbors and friends celebrating this 242nd birthday of these United States of America. It’s unlikely that anyone composed and/or captioned those photos with reference to political party, race, gender, creed, country of origin, etc. It would be silly to do so because it’s (as Jefferson would say) self-evident that we are all Americans today. And we will all be Americans tomorrow.
Regrettably, like any other day, there were plenty of divisive and hackneyed political messages being offered on my Facebook timeline. Whether they were gratuitous hit-pieces against “the other side” or sanctimonious homages to the righteous of “our side,” they were equally noxious on what ought to be a day around which we ought to find common ground. Thankfully, these were in short supply. Hyper-partisans aside, most of us still chose to honor our national holiday as a day of celebration, a day of thankfulness, and a day of national unity.
In these trying times, unity often seems to be in short supply. Thankfully, we are given this annual opportunity for a reflective moment. We can recall that we live under the oldest Constitutional government in the world. Though we may disagree about the precise means by which we might form a “more perfect union,” we recognize the importance and nobility of the end goal. Every July 4th is a success story, a “win” for our democratic-republic, and a continuation of the “American experiment.”
The banner still waves. Long may it.
Happy Birthday, America…
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Amen to that!
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I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good.
I do not know who you are but definitely you’re going to
a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!