Today, Americans across the world will celebrate the birth of the United States. On this day in 1776, we officially declared our independence from the tyranny and oppression of the English king. It was an unprecedented act of defiance against the century’s most powerful country. In the ensuing war, only our steadfast hope for a better, more inclusive government allowed our troops to beat back the mighty armies of the king.
Too often, Americans focus on the negatives that engulf our great land: war, terrorism, economic woes, the list goes on. In all that gloom, we forget an important fact. Despite our problems, the United States of America is still, two hundred thirty years after its birth, the most respected, free and powerful nation on this earth. For over two centuries we have led the world in the direction of right. On this day we should forget all our nation is not and be thankful for all that it is.
We have stood proud against oppression in foreign lands. We have set the barrier for free trade. We have struggled to open our own land to people of different races and nationalities so that they too can experience the American dream. For those reasons we are the only superpower left on the globe.
On distant battlefields from the jungles of the south Pacific to the beaches of Normandy to the deserts of Iraq, our armies are respected and unparalleled. In both world wars we entered on the side of the downcast, beaten, and oppressed and used our skill as fighters, our dream as free men and women, and our trust in each other to defend freedom’s cause. At the conclusion of the wars, meanwhile, we used those same qualities to help the defeated rebuild their war torn nations – just as we are doing in Iraq today. Indeed, people across the world should be just as proud of America as we are. No country at any time in the eventful history of this world has been as helpful to people of foreign lands than the United States.
When the evil threat of communism began to appear at all corners of the world, what country issued a doctrine protecting any country from its threats? What country entered in hundreds of relief missions to save the world from the U.S.S.R.? What country committed our young men in our armed forces to defend world peace? Only the proud and strong United States of America.
And what of the Cold War’s end? Did the United States gloat at the poor, oppressed people of the former superpower the U.S.S.R.? Certainly not! Instead of invading the Soviet Union with bombers and missiles, we sent food, money and relief. Never before, had such an outright winner in a war provided so much help to the people of the defeated nation.
Because of a dream our soldiers had when they fought the British, because of a dream our fore-fathers had when they framed the Constitution, because of a dream shared by the millions of different people in America to promote peace, seek justice, and remove oppression from the world, we are the freest nation on the face of this earth.
On this day we should be thankful for all the extraordinary men and women who have made this country what it is today: George Washington, John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and the list goes on. These men and women not only embodied the American spirit, they lived the dream.
They understood that freedom, not oppression, is the way to lead a great nation to glory. America is a land of brave, smart, patient, and free individuals where everyone is allowed to blossom to their full potential. We are a nation of the people for the people. We may have lost our way occasionally throughout history, but time and again we have striven to correct our mistakes, to repay our debts, and to lead ourselves, and this world, in the right direction once again.
Too often we read between the stars and stripes and see the mistakes of our country and its leaders. Today, let’s look solely at the flag as it proudly billows in the wind and be thankful that we are citizens of the greatest nation this world has ever known: The United States of America.
For an alternative view, check out my latest blog post.
god bless americaland that i lovestand beside herand guide herthrough the night, with a light, from abovei agree. america is not a thing, so much as it is a process. great post fitz.
ps: i wrote my rant about “other” politics (and facebook in general), but i’m going to sit on it for a day or two so this doesn’t get buried under my post (it’s a long one).
Good post fitz.But Dustin, I don’t agree with you. There are certain unchanging principles that America stands for: freedom, equality of opportunity (not results), perseverance, etc. And America handles each new problem or issue that arises through the lens of these unshakeable principles. It is the application of these principles that has brought about positive change, which makes America great. It is not the pursuit of change for the sake of change. This is what distinguishes the conservative worldview from the liberal worldview. The founders did not discard everything about the England for the sake of “change.” They kept what worked and what adhered to their principles and changed what was necessary to prevent infringements upon freedom.
I don’t think you understood what Dionne was saying. The typical jingoist view of the holiday is to wave the flag and wrap oneself in it, celebrating the imagined perfection of the nation. Dionne is saying the true patriotism is always being a little unsatisfied with the status quo and seeking to make America even more perfect and to progress toward a better future that ends the sins of the past. That’s progressivism.
Thanks for this post, Fitz.
dustin:364 days out of the year, i’d probably agree with you. but it’s called a celebration for a reason. you don’t celebrate your imperfection, or your plans for the future, or what you hope might happen: you celebrate your accomplishments.for all that’s “wrong” with america, there’s a helluva lot that’s right. and that, and not some sissy progressivism, ought to be the focus of our independence day.
Progressivism is nothing more then the extreme pride and vanity of Leftists such as Dustin. It always amazes me how the self appointed “progressives” replace God with their own simple human minds as the arbiters of what change is good and what qualifies as moving towards “perfection.” Contrary to what these so called “progressives” assert, “progressivism” as it is understood in modern political parlance, is the furthest thing from perfection, unless of course you define perfection on the relativistic views of the liberal elect.Patriotism to “progressives” is all ideology, nothing more. Now for me personally, I find it very hard to be patriotic about a country that permits the wanton slaughter of millions of unborn children, permits euthenasia, permits embryonic stem cell research, and attempts tonormalize such aberrations as homosexual relations/marriages, among other such things. I also find it hard to be patriotic about a society that revels in lust and pride.However, I think Fitz had it right with regard to being thankful to the US for what it did during the Cold War. If it wasn’t for the US, we wouldall be speaking Russian and people like Dustin would be sending all of us “closed minded” conservatives to the gulag or re-education camps.And one other thing about progressivism. I was reading a book of the old testament about a week ago, and a verse just popped out at me as being so indicative of what we humans are subjected to under the auspices of our modern “progressive” society. The book was Isaias’ prophecy on the future coming of Christ. Isaias 5:20 (Dhouay Rheims translation) reads: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness forlight, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” In so many ways the change promoted by “progressivism” is advocated as “good,” when in fact it is pure evil. See the abortion debate as the most glaring example of this.
Eddie, you disgust me.
Right on, Eddie! And good post, Fitz.-Nancy
Ha! Thanks Nancy. Dustin, I take your disgust as a compliment. 🙂