Independence Day is another name for what most of us refer to as the Fourth of July. On that day, as we commemorate the issuance of the Declaration of Independence, we celebrate. We have cookouts, family gatherings, a beach trip, or participate in our nation’s national pastime, our beloved baseball games.
Any day on which we have the choice of how to spend it, is brought to us by the sacrifices of many, and is always cause for celebration as such. That ability to choose validates our life as marvelous, even when life is tougher than it should be. Many, if not most, people, including children, around the world don’t have that privilege of choice. America, despite all its foibles, is still a nation with great potential; we just haven’t realized that potential yet, despite any consensuses.
There’s no need to reiterate the points of procrastination and derailment of what was supposedly forthcoming since the sound of the first shot of our revolution. Here at Chatterbox, we’ve discussed it often enough, but with the celebration at hand, many, if not most, of us must admit that a large number of groups of Americans are still waiting for the equality promised. As we look around we are assured that those Americans aren’t thrilled about the delay of what has been obtained, even gradually, by portions of Americans for nearly 250 years. In some cases, we are ahead of, or on par with, some other nations. However, in many cases, we are embarrassingly far behind in deliverance of true democracy.
Even with the events Americans celebrate on this upcoming national holiday, there’s still some doubt as to the fruition of truths, the assertions made, and accomplishments that so many of these celebrations tout. Unfortunately, much of what we commemorate is incomplete. Around the country, too many of us are still waiting for equality, so late in delivery. Some Americans are waiting for true equality to come to others, and, sadly, some are waiting for some equality to be removed from others.
Recent immigrants, women, people with special needs, of a certain skin color or religion, members of the LGBTQ community, those too young or too old, those in need of employment, financial, or medical assistance are some still in a very slow moving line, and the promised equality and liberty celebrated on Independence Day may be a bit of a burr in the side.
Many, here and around the world, see that our nation is staring down the barrel of many barriers to the greatness we are reported to have already attained. It’s that juxtaposition that gives many Americans pause when we say the words declaring current unilateral freedom as a given. Recognizing that inaccuracy and America’s mission of liberty as still a difficult and basically incomplete work in progress creates the uncomfortable hesitancy some of us may feel in any promulgation of what’s only partially true.
Throughout our nation’s history, we have been achieving covertly biased goals and hiding their injustice under our glorious flag. Many Americans take to the street periodically to call noisy attention to that … a sad, uncomfortable necessity. Even sadder, is that it shouldn’t be necessary.
Over the past eight years or so, it’s become obvious that we as individuals, our people as a nation, and our nation as a whole, are increasingly divided, failing to foster unity in a genuine democracy. Are we going backwards as a free nation and as Americans?
This holiday should mark independence for each of us, for all of us. It should be a wild, flag-waving, whooping and hollering day for all Americans to be able to feel the power of American pride, equal and free among one another, everyone, everywhere, every day.
Moreover, the equality promised centuries ago should be such old news by now. We not only shouldn’t still be divided over it, we shouldn’t need to be discussing it, or even have to think about it. We shouldn’t still have to contemplate the limits many Americans still endure over the freedom that we celebrate under the banner of Independence Day, and we certainly shouldn’t even consider supporting inequality or promulgating those limits. The truest nature of this nation, the truest heart of a Democracy, the truest application of the equality America is supposed to stand for doesn’t have versions or limits.
On Independence Day and every day, under the Stars and Stripes, we are either all free or we are none of us entitled to be so.
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