Why we celebrate.

Everyone enjoys something slightly different about July 4, and at times past we’ve been especially excited about the fireworks, or the parade, or the hot dogs. With the holiday tomorrow, we do hope that everyone can slow down and enjoy some reflective time.
Ah, would that it were possible every day! Our lives get so full that we sometimes hardly know where the days go. It can feel almost like shampoo directions: 1) Chores/work/spouse/kids. 2) Sleep. 3) Repeat.
One of our favorite quotations is from Franklin Field, who said the dividing line between success and failure can be summed up in five words: “I did not have time.” In truth, we do. We each get 24 hours every day, and seven days every week. It’s a matter of how we choose to spend them. If we let the “busy-ness” of life consume that time, so be it. If we choose to stake out some of that time for contemplation, so much the better. Or for family, or for exercise, or for any other thing that feeds our souls.
And if we do take a moment tomorrow, perhaps we can remember just why it is that we celebrate July 4. It is, of course, the anniversary of that tremendous achievement in the recognition of human rights: The Declaration of Independence.
While it served certain political interests of the time, as did the fabled Magna Carte, the Declaration memorialized in poetic language what today we take for granted: “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.”
These are personal rights, not granted by the king or the state or any other earthly power. It would take a hard war against the British and the subsequent creation of a tri-partite system of government in order to secure those rights, but July 4, 1776, remains a momentous day in human history. It took another war, among ourselves, to acknowledge those rights for all races, when President Abraham Lincoln famously noted, “our fathers brought forth … a new nation, … dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” And it took a constitutional amendment in 1920 to acknowledge those rights for both genders.
But acknowledged they are, and we are the lucky participants in the ongoing American political experiment. Compared with other great states, our 232 years is not so long, and our nation looks troubled over many issues. But … we haven’t a king, or a doge (head of the old Republic of Venice, elected for life), or a dictator, or a military junta, or a state religion. Not bad, historically. Our republic still has an elected leader who serves no more than eight years and, most important, every four years we can “throw the bum out,” if we choose.
Yes, we have many reasons to celebrate, on July 4 and all year long. Happy birthday, USA!
Parts of this editorial first appeared in July 2007