America’s Immutable Truths
On July 4, 1776, representatives to the Second Continental Congress - a motley bunch of colonial landowners, statesmen, and merchants - voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, sending a message to an indifferent king and his sprawling empire that "these United Colonies...ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved..."
When written, this treatise was more than just bold words. It was the spark that ignited an inferno for independence raging with flames visible to many across an ocean. Americans were demanding something never before tried: self-governance under the guise of democracy. At the time, nothing could have been more radical. Indeed, to King George III and the British Parliament, the declaration was foolhardy, and these were fighting words - a fight the empire was not going to lose to seemingly rebellious colonials. Even Benjamin Franklin knew what was coming, as he uttered, "Well, gentlemen, we must now hang together, or we shall most assuredly hang separately."
Today, most Americans forget that the Spirit of 1776, and the reason we celebrate this day, had more to do with a unifying desire for freedom, rather than the actual achievement of it. Beyond the Declaration of Independence, the journey to the creation of this great republic was a hard one. The British came gunning, and they were not officially defeated until 1783. And even after that, a fledgling, new America was out of sorts. The thirteen states bickered over trade and the repayment of debts. Foreign powers sought to wield influence in their capitals, while also aggravating conditions along their wild borders into the continent's interior. And excessively-taxed farmers, now disenchanted with the states they fought for, rose up in anger, demanding change through yet another rebellion. Indeed, our great experiment almost didn't happen.
History is a remarkable resource. It does not simply remind us of where we have come from, but it speaks volumes about who we are, as a people, shaping the raw edges of that history to get here. History is also a lens through which we can view the lessons from our past and better understand today's challenges.
To that end, there are a few immutable truths that we should recognize about our country. The first is that, while our Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal, America has had a very difficult time exercising that notion with any truthfulness since those words were first written. In fact, our inability to do so is the very reason why, until this day, we bicker over the need for an equality amendment to the Constitution of the United States; it is the reason why, in the midst of a public-health crisis, we cannot come together in a manner that respects and protects all lives without debating and trivializing its seriousness; and it is why people must still protest in the streets, after a man is murdered on streaming media.
"All men are created equal." Thomas Jefferson scribbled those words onto a letter to King George III, in 1776, setting in motion a course of events that would redefine the world. And to this day, those words echo with significance, but from one generation to another, they have been a hard pill to swallow whole. The painful, but readily apparent, truth is that, though we may all be created equally by a benevolent God, we are not treated equally by our fellow man, because, in practice, some lives do not seem to matter as much as others.
The second truth is that, while our modern society rushes boldly toward the promise of tomorrow, we have also paradoxically stumbled backwards. We have not put aside the things that divide us – things like race or religion or ethnicity or sexual orientation. And it has not taken much to prove this to be true; the pandemic and the incivility across our country only serve to expose just how united we are not. In fact, our insecurities and our distrust are more glaring now than at any point in a generation, and those things are given voices through the old hates and fears of our past. Today our society is marred by division; even as we find ourselves living in a time when more than 600,000 of our fellow Americans have perished, we cannot, and likely refuse to, put aside our politics long enough cooperate, because we are so angry and so inconsiderate of one another.
As a society, we are in a dark place, and most of us do not even know how we got here. We look on, mostly in disbelief, as vitriol and senselessness march this society deeper and deeper into moments of anger, inhumanity, and violence. And with every new sociopolitically-charged incident - whether it is young people killing one another in all-too-common street violence, fights in retail stores over whether or not to wear a mask, the invasion of statehouses by armed civilians, or acts of police brutality - we admit to harboring increasing unease and a worry that something terrible is on the horizon for us. That is probably because, if we stay this course, then something surely is - wholesale destruction.
To be sure, that trajectory for our country is not locked. We can change course.
We have always known that our society was made stronger by its diversity. Sure, it has been a major struggle, but coming to terms with that diversity, learning to live better together than apart, has made our society truly great. After all, pluralism makes a way for the acceptance of all God's people; it opens and enriches even the most narrow of minds; and it spurs creativity and innovation. What we also have to remember, particularly now, is that an age of anger and of inhumanity should never be countered with more anger. Violence cannot be resolved with more violence. Instead, we must meet the enemies of progress with faith, with patience, with tolerance, and with forgiveness. We must keep open the channels of communication, so that genuine dialogues in a pluralistic society such as our own can spur healing and understanding. And we must trust that our judicial system will bring to justice those who assault not only others but the very fragile bonds of our unity.
In times like these, while it does not seem immediately sensible, we must pray hardest when it is hardest to pray. We must ask God for discernment and for clarity in our direction. We must ask Him to heal troubled and wounded hearts, and, most importantly, to restore our ability to trust in one another, because we are not each others' enemies. And that is so necessary to know, lest we will all descend further into mistrust, acrimony, division, and hostility - all, in a moment when lives are already being snuffed out be an invisible killer.
In times like these, we are all well-served to reflect on how far we have come. Indeed, ours has been a long and exhausting journey, but it has produced the most remarkable story in all of human history. No other nation on this planet can boast that its authentically heterogeneous society has had a greater impact on the human condition; and for that matter, no other nation is more deserving to lead the world forward. America is truly a standard bearer to this changing world, but in order for it to remain so, its people must stand united, and its leadership cannot peddle conspiracy, assign blame, stoke division, or promote fratricide.
No, we are not perfect. But when we put aside the importance of trivialities, we accomplish great things. Therefore, we must again find common cause to progress together, and, when necessary, lift up our fellows along the way. We must quell the urge to succumb to this age of anger and of inhumanity, knowing that, only through faith in something greater than ourselves, and not through the fear or suspicions that feed division and violence, we will see even better days.
Today, as we commemorate the initial signing of Declaration of Independence, let's take a moment to remind ourselves that, as a country, we have seen challenging times before - times of internal disharmony, of geopolitical strife, and of general uncertainty - but from all of those times, we have risen together, by working tirelessly and pragmatically and thoughtfully. And in that solidary we have always found the power to achieve what history would come to call exceptional. It is the same spirit that galvanized and unified colonials in 1776. And today - even though many Americans feel strained, divided, and unsure - we should remind ourselves that we have the capacity rise again, together, with our eyes fixed on a greater destiny before us.
- gh
