Three Bronx Cheers For The Red, White, and Blue
There are a lot of reasons not to feel patriotic before our national birthday celebration.
Many are already celebrating the Fourth of July. Displays of patriotism and love of country are already in view three days before the actual event.
But there are many of us who aren’t in a celebratory mood. We aren’t flying the flag, we aren’t wearing red, white, and blue clothing, and we don’t plan on attending parades and firework celebrations.
That’s because for many of us, America the Beautiful continues to be America the Disappointing.
There are a number of reasons for muted, if any celebrations of America’s birth:
Today’s Supreme Court ruling upholding two voter suppression laws in Arizona - one that require ballots cast at the wrong precinct to be thrown out, and another prohibiting campaign workers, activists and others from collecting and returning ballots. This action makes it more likely that GOP-led voter suppression tactics will survive legal challenges, and disenfranchises minority and poor voters.
The release from prison of entertainer Bill Cosby on a technicality. Cosby admitted to drugging numerous women before raping them, but was released when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court argued that a prior agreement not to prosecute him in exchange for testimony should have been honored.
House Minority Kevin McCarthy threatening to strip fellow Republicans of committee memberships if they join the bipartisan committee that will investigate the January 6 riot and insurrection.
There are other reasons to be blasé about July 4. There are hopeful signs, for instance, the Trump Organization and its CFO being indicted on tax fraud and conspiracy charges. But the preponderance of bad news is feeding the cynic more nourishment than the optimist.
Years after the Civil War, former President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis said:
“If the Confederacy falls, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory.”
Davis was referring to the Confederate states’ refusal to promise freedom to slaves who would fight in the Confederate Army. One general in response to this idea said
“If slaves will make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong.”
The theory of America, the essence of its greatness, has always been that the country was freer, more enterprising, more tolerant, more industrious than any other country.
Perhaps we have possessed some of these traits, but we have never, ever been as great as we have thought we were, or as we have advertised ourselves to be. We have lectured other countries ad nauseum about their shortcomings, when our actions stand in stark contrast to what we have actually achieved as a republic.
On the one hand, Thomas Jefferson wrote a magnificent document that says, “We hold these truth 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."
On the other hand, Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner who began raping his slave Sally Hemmings when she was 14 and he was 44, fathering at least six children.
On the one hand, Black people have been welcomed by their White counterparts to fight in every war and military conflict from the Revolutionary War to the Afghanistan War.
On the other hand, Black people were also legally codified as less than human, enslaved, disenfranchised by segregationist laws, lynched, and even today are subject to extrajudicial law enforcement murder.
On the one hand, American women have risen to every occasion in our nation’s history.
On the other hand, they are still treated as second-class citizens, making less money and having fewer opportunities for advancement than their male counterparts.
On the one hand, we are a lot freer, have more opportunity, and there is potential for a better life than in most parts of the world.
On the other hand, we make it as difficult as possible for immigrants to assimilate in America unless they are White males.
America needs to walk the walk and not just offer some of its citizenry broken or empty promises.
Otherwise, one day, in the not-too-distant future, America may die of a theory.