Our founding fathers weren’t politicians.  They were farmers and lawyers and dry goods merchants.  It must have taken enormous fortitude to make the decision to break from England, knowing that they could well die for the effort.  Even if they survived, it was hardly clear that a nation would emerge.

Independence was about more than breaking away from King George.  It was about doing better than England.  They had an idealistic vision of a place where they could be free to pursue their dreams and goals.  Some kinks had to be worked out in the plan.  Some were slave owners.  Others were slave lovers.  Women served men.  The poor served the wealthy.  But freedom would trickle down over time, as each came to assert their right, just as our founding fathers did, to be equally worthy.

Yet for each step forward, there was a step or two back.  There were always those for whom the risks were overwhelming.  There were those for whom the status quo was too good to let someone spoil it.  But mostly, there were those for whom fear became their driving motivation.  Better to wear chains in safety than shed them in risk.

The American ideals that were taught to me as a child seem foreign today.  I was taught that it was better to let 100 guilty men go free than imprison one innocent man.  I was taught that a person could walk from one shore to the other without ever having to prove his identity to anyone.  I was taught that the police were here to protect us and that the courts existed to stop power hungry politicians from stripping Americans of their freedoms.  Freedom was always the central concept.  Freedom is what made America matter.

We still hear the word used constantly, but in a context that makes little sense.  Orwellian in usage, we are deluged with platitudes that command us to give up our rights to preserve our freedom.  We are bombarded by those who are supposed to be our guardians with explanations of why our survival depends on relinquishing our freedom.  To suggest that this path undermines our essential nature as Americans is too obvious.  To suggest that too many Americans will blindly comply to preserve our founding fathers’ legacy is too painful.

We have faced challenges to freedom before.  Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, but we survived.  FDR put Americans of Japanese descent into internment camps, but we survived.  Today, we hide enemy combatants at Gitmo and torture them.  Today, we must show an ID card upon demand of anyone from the police to the cashier as Victoria’s Secret.  Today, our private packages are subject to random search as we enter public transportation in New York City. 

It’s hard to say that our freedoms are more circumscribed today than they have been in the past.  But it is clear that they are, once again, under attack.  American history teaches that we are a country that can be manipulated by fear, with a majority of Americans willing to give up the rights that were worth dying for 231 years ago.  Perhaps we are unworthy of the dream.  Perhaps we just haven’t suffered enough to have earned freedom.

But history also teaches that someone or some group will arise to lay claim to the true American heritage of freedom.  Small men, such as those who currently hold the reins of power, will fade.  Heroes will emerge who will disdain the fearmongers and accept the challenge of telling the truth.  We will be given a better choice than bad and worse.  Someone will speak truth, even when it’s unpleasant, and we will be mature enough to listen to it and recognize it, even though we would prefer it be different.

Today is the Fourth of July.  Independence Day.  It’s a good day to think about the promise of America in the minds and hearts of great men.  And to question how we, ordinary people, have dealt with that promise.   Many will be saddened that 231 years have passed and we have not yet accomplished the dream.  Others will be heartened by the fact that some of us, indeed many of us, are still trying.  Don’t give up.  It’s a dream worth fighting for.

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

— Samuel Adams  (Courtesy of Mark Bennett)