This past year has created no shortage of tests. We began with an already bitter partisan divide when a pandemic came along to pit individual liberties and the bill of rights against public health concerns. By all accounts, this was a rocky road. An impeachment process distracted us from larger issues. Individual liberties were constrained by shut downs of work and pleasure and many of us spent more time in our homes and online than we ever expected. The rights we thought were guaranteed were brought into conflict as churches were cast aside as non-essential parts of our culture and society while liquor stores and abortion clinics were left open. Then came the election season which was not its usual silly time. With Biden hidden away in a basement and Trump going through more threats from a hostile Congress, it was hardly business as usual. An election in which some states bent over backwards to interpret or expand election law to benefit the Democrat was matched by attempts in other states to restrict the interpretation of laws to benefit the Republican. The rest of the time was matched by heated rhetoric which erupted in a demonstration few saw coming but all of us should have expected. The march on the Capitol will not soon be forgotten. But in the backdrop of all of this were issues of race and justice. Black Lives Matter orchestrated protests that did not remain peaceful. Police were in the cross hairs as violent episodes between the cops and Blacks were deemed unjust and unfair and a cop convicted in a very public and quick trial.
How did we do? Depends on who you talk to, I guess. Some folks think we did better than expected while others are greatly disappointed. I am not here to give us a grade. But I would like us to think about the direction of things and how this impacts us now and in our future as a country. The things that unite us seem fewer today than at other times. We live in a culture in which diversity is a higher value than what we share in common. We live in a time in which individual rights are on the ascent in some areas (sexuality, gender, etc...) while they are being questioned or challenged in others (free speech, right to bear arms, right of religious assembly, etc...). We claim to have a youth culture but the two candidates for President were the oldest ever to be on the ballot and we elected the oldest man in the race. We are not supposed to notice things like race or gender and yet we cannot blink an eye without some reminding us that this person is the first woman, person of color, trans, or whatever to be elected, appointed, etc... All of these things might be typical of people celebrating firsts except that the stridency witch which these things are noted indicates that there will be more and more firsts and more and more rejection of things white and male and Christian. On top of this we continue to have an immigration crisis that has transcended one administration and entered another (even though policies have not differed greatly between them).
It should be remembered that America's greatness was never its ability to welcome the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and wretched refuse of your teeming shore. The welcome was and is important. We are a nation of immigrants. But the genius of America was that the diversity was countered by a common language, a commitment to work, a shared morality, a willingness to listen, debate, vote, and then unite behind our leaders. This has not been the case for a while now. The media have been key to this, preferring a politicized view of the news to an objective one and clearly agitating for certain people and certain positions. Social media has not given anything on its promise to bring people together and instead has become a forum for our differences and our impatience with those who disagree. Worse, social media has lived under the illusion of freedom while actually censoring the conversation and weighing in on one side against another.
On this Fourth of July, it will take more than some plant based burgers and hotdogs to restore America's dream. Instead, it will take a renewed commitment to the basic ideas that characterized our beginning -- more emphasis on what we owe to each other than what we are owed and a deeper commitment to working for what desire rather than expecting others or our government to give these to us. The richest heritage of our nation has been our industry and our sense of personal responsibility. Where these continue, our future will be strong. If these decline, we will continue to struggle and find ourselves frustrated by divisions that not only cannot be reconciled but distract and dishearten us as a people.
I am grateful that my great-grandparents left behind their homelands and came here and I deeply appreciate all the blessings and benefits living here has accorded me. Paying taxes is not the cost of liberty but it does help with the upkeep. The cost of liberty has been borne by those who fought in wars, those who died far from home and those who came back home to get back to work, raise their families, and volunteer -- like my dad and father-in-law. May we remember our commitment to the basic things that have always marked what made us great and the future will be hopeful.
God bless America!
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