Thinking past the fireworks to America’s potential, as envisioned by our founders
After the Fourth of July TV shows concluded, I felt relief, appreciating the fireworks and the looks of wonder reflected in the eyes of children. America had made it through July 4th peacefully, despite all that has transpired over the past six months. Psalm 118 came to mind: “Give thanks to the Eternal for his mercy endures forever.”
I have a great feeling these days about America’s potential but, while cautiously optimistic, I cannot lose sight of continued threats to our democracy. I choose to invest my emotions in the potential for an American rebound in its moral and spiritual compass.
My impulse to experience America’s pulse propelled me this summer to take a traditional American driving trip: Hilton Head to Maine and back.
People looked happy and appeared to be joyfully celebrating their ability to travel without restrictions. The small towns are open for business, and the restaurants were packed. It rejuvenated my spirit, like old times again. Many of our fellow travelers were seeking that same reconnection.
Yet, regaining that sense of unity in America requires more than attending Fourth of July celebrations and taking traditional summer road trips. Preserving a democracy, like sustaining a religion, demands that each of us make a daily effort. Following the rituals of our faith traditions as well as living by them is supposed to instill in us the values and morals our creator desires for us. Dedication to sustaining a democracy is also a day-to-day affair and requires a similar kind of awareness and commitment to equal opportunity for all, a fundamental tenet of American democracy.
Every American has the ability to make this nation better and to help the country realize the vision that our founders had for it. America’s potential calls out to each of us to make a difference, each in our own way. Will we heed that call?
Many Americans have not had an equal opportunity, despite their hard work, to realize the promise of America. Racial inequality over hundreds of years has left them in pain. We still have more work to do for this generation of Americans and the next. Today, sadly, many say behind closed doors that they just don’t want to hear these calls for justice. They ignore calls for justice from LGBTQ families and women’s rights groups, among others. Those voices will not go away no matter how long we close our minds.
At the same time many Americans remind us that the founding fathers weren’t perfect. They were, for example, slave holders. Their writings set down the hopes and dreams for millions of people around the world to come to America, including my poor extended families from small villages in Poland and the Ukraine.
History is only now telling the stories of our slave-owning founding fathers.
That history must come forward, but it does not diminish the vision for our new democracy. Can Americans learn to look past the founding fathers’ transgressions and focus on the good they presented to our new country? Can Americans make peace with that history, concluding that their great writings outweigh their actions as slave owners?
Religious institutions in America are no different from governments, because they, too, have a history of discrimination dating to the start of our nation. It’s true that churches and synagogues played the roles of sanctuaries from hatred and discrimination. At the same time, various denominations still struggle with their own history of racial discrimination and bigotry toward other Americans, especially African Americans.
The momentum in America today is to face our history and ourselves, and that may be the hardest and most sacred task before us. In a new book, “In the Hands of the People,” edited by historian Jon Meacham, is an Afterward by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and professor of law at Harvard University, Annette Gordon-Reed.
She imagines what Thomas Jefferson would say if he faced the America that is versus the America he had originally envisioned. Reed quotes from Jefferson himself in a letter he wrote to a friend a month before he passed away. He said, “May it be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner to others later, but finally to all.)”
The fireworks give our children wonder and instill in us hope that the future for America is bright. Making America work means enabling democracy to include everyone — and to improve the lives of all its citizens.