{"id":5684,"date":"2022-07-04T10:15:32","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T14:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=5684"},"modified":"2023-07-13T11:24:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T15:24:02","slug":"independence-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2022\/07\/04\/independence-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Independence Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mid-Life Crisis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Independence Day, the Fourth of July, 2022.  The United States is two hundred and forty-six years old.  History is relative in the US, two hundred and forty-six seems like such a long time.  But, in the course of history, two and a half centuries really isn\u2019t very long.  Just look at the history of the United Kingdom, or China, or France, or the Navajo.  While the United States is no longer a \u201cyoung\u201d country, we probably are just reaching \u201cmiddle age\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America is celebrating a birthday on a national scale, kind of like a man turning forty-seven.  It\u2019s those years of \u201cmid-life crisis\u201d, when the identity and goals of young manhood are now in a wholly different perspective.  How do you know that your \u201cyounger life\u201d is over?  I knew it when they put a stent in my heart (at forty-seven), though it took a few more years to sink in.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the United States is trying to buy a leather jacket and a Corvette.  We are, in fact, looking back to the \u201cgood old days\u201d as if the future will never live up to the past.  We are a nation struggling with changes, wistfully wishing (for the privileged few) that we could be something we once thought we were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

False Utopia<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the first month of these \u201cOur America\u201d essays, I wrote an essay called \u201cTrump World and the Beaver<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It was all about the so-called utopia of the 1950\u2019s, when I was born, and the world was simpler.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cLeave it to Beaver\u201d was a show about the life of a white, suburban kid named Theodore, nicknamed \u201cthe Beaver\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0His Dad wore a suit and tie to work (he took the tie and suit coat off, and put a sweater on for dinner) and his Mom cleaned the house in a dress and pearls.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an idyllic life of baseball games and adventures with brother Wally.  Mr. Cleaver always had the wise answer to the boys\u2019 problems, and Mrs. Cleaver with never flustered, and always perfectly coiffed.  But that idyllic life was for the chosen few.  While Wally and the Beaver were growing up on TV,  young Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi. Rosa Parks was refusing to sit in the back of the bus, and  Martin Luther King was emerging as the leader of a national movement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

America was preparing for the dramatic changes of the 1960\u2019s, from civil rights to opposition to the Vietnam War, to the whole \u201chippie\u201d movement.  A decade after \u201cthe Beaver\u201d, life in America was changed forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life Changes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Like any life changes, it wasn\u2019t all for the good, or for the bad. The United States became more diverse, more \u201cfree\u201d, more willing to change.  We set out on a path whose ultimate result was an America that would be fully integrated, not just \u201ctechnically\u201d in schools and swimming pools, but in life.  Kids of all races would listen to music of all cultures, and the racial-cultural-religious background of a person would not matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be easy here to insert Dr. King\u2019s, \u201c\u2026judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character\u201d.  It was a goal he established on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.  But fifty-nine years after that marker in history, we forget that in the speech he also said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men \u2014 yes, Black men as well as white men \u2014 would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

America\u2019s Promise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Independence Day.  And the United States still hasn\u2019t made that check good for so many of our citizens.  Instead of \u201cdoubling down\u201d to clear that debt, a portion of our nation is trying to roll the clock back to no longer honor the bill.   So while we celebrate our birthday, Independence Day, we should realize that we are a nation defined by obligation.  The United States, was founded in concepts rather than in people.  The notably flawed Founding Fathers were able to create concepts beyond their personal failings.  And it is to those principles that we should look in our \u201cmid-life\u201d crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Dr. King, we should look to the promise of the Declaration of Independence, our founding document: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  <\/em>It was on this day, two hundred and forty-six years ago, that the founders of our nation agreed to our Independence, based on those words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we should look to the promise of the Constitution, establishing the fact and the goals of our Union eleven years later:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Perfect<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s my favorite phrase in America\u2019s founding documents: \u201c\u2026a more perfect Union\u201d.  It\u2019s the promise of America \u2013 that while our Union may be \u201cperfect\u201d, our goal is continually make it \u201cmore perfect\u201d.  And it is in the \u201cmore perfecting\u201d that we are committed to struggle, through war and rebellion, economic failure and success, and even the evil manipulations of men intent on gaining power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So America, blow out the candles, you\u2019ve still got the \u201cwind\u201d to put out all two hundred and forty-six.  Forget the leather jacket and Corvette \u2013 the President already has them.  And make the wish, that we shall look to a future of \u201cmore perfecting\u201d, rather than a past that really only existed for the few.  We are an America of the many, and we need to make our \u201cchecks\u201d good.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Fourth of July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mid-Life Crisis It\u2019s Independence Day, the Fourth of July, 2022.  The United States is two hundred and forty-six years old.  History is relative in the US, two hundred and forty-six seems like such a long time.  But, in the course of history, two and a half centuries really isn\u2019t very long.  Just look at the history of the United … Continue reading “Independence Day”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIndependence Day : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's the Fourth of July. 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