I'd think of the men and women who continue to put their lives on the line to defend U.S. interests and the sacrifices they make. Having kept in touch with my friend while he serves in Afghanistan, I have new respect and appreciation for everything that entails.
While I am still a proud American, this Fourth was completely different for me. Watching the fireworks was the only thread of continuity linking me to years past. What's different now is that my vision's gone from 2-D to 3-D. Added to the cardboard cutouts of our founding fathers frozen in their moments of glory is a crowd of faces behind them - each with its own heartbreaking tragedy to tell: being sold like livestock, daily life steeped in condescension, lashings, losing family members to the auction block or at the hands of a bigot, and the death of dreams. Now I replay the parades, flag-waving, speeches about liberty and God's role in this young nation at the same time that this quilt of heartbreak and horror is going on in plain sight -- and it makes it impossible for me to celebrate the holiday as I used to. I'm not trying to be a downer, I just feel like we need to be telling the whole story in context because otherwise it's propaganda. Without context, it's an insult to the memory of the faces in that crowd and a disservice to the future of this country.
When this internal shift began I don't know, but I think conversations with friends, books I've read in the last year, and the desire to grow past old limits were the seeds watered by three climactic 'finds.' The first was the book I'm reading now: Black Like Me, which, despite its flaws, describes in detail the injustice experienced across the South just 51 years ago (relatively speaking, yesterday). More on this book in a future post, but for our purposes here, it paved the way for me to absorb in a new way an opinion piece published in USA TODAY's Friday edition inspired by Frederick Douglass' 1852 speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro." The third 'find' was stumbling upon Spike Lee's 'Malcolm X' on my TV movie database and watching it July 3rd. The opening 3 minutes of the movie had me wondering if I should have watched it another weekend, after the holiday perhaps. But I forged ahead into the 3.5 hour film and didn't regret it, although it did make me uncomfortable in my skin and unsure of how to approach the day. I love my country for all the good things she can be, but I have never seen more clearly her shortcomings and have never been more conscious of the inequalities that make this holiday difficult or unpalatable for some.
After I finished watching the movie Saturday night, I thought back to the moments of enthusiasm that I heard this week at work and I realized that the conversations could be sorted along the racial divide. The same was true for the responses I got when I wished someone a 'Happy Fourth'. And the same was true (I found while people-watching at a baseball game) in the general approaches taken toward getting into the spirit (whether by clothing choices or conversation topics). I spoke with one guy who had asked me why I wasn't wearing something patriotic and I explained what was on my mind. He listened to me talk and with a knowing nod said, "there's a bit of hypocrisy to it, isn't there?"
All this has made me wonder how I got through school without having a teacher assign Douglass' speech to read as homework, without having these types of discussions along the way, without seeing the truth while looking at it all the time. But it has also encouraged me that I am seeing it now, that I've shed the blinders that stagnated growth and that I'm on my way to new and improved sensibilities.
I wrap up this post with the words of the man who inspired it:
"I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age."
The obvious tendencies of the age Douglass was referring to in 1852 was the growing cooperation between nations and the fall of isolationism, but the tendencies I see present day is the increasing frequency with which people of all races and backgrounds come together, and the rise of African-Americans to positions of power (politicians, lawyers, educational leaders, TV commentators, etc) Although this Fourth was unlike the others before it, I do not lack national pride, it's just a quieter pride as I face the past with a fuller vision of all the parts I was missing in the picture before. It's a pride that is grounded in the work that is left to do. We must ensure that all Americans can come together feeling like they have an equal place at the table. May the ambitions and vision of our cornerstone documents be truly fulfilled with liberty and justice for all.
Photograph by Cliff Owen, AP
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