REGIE'S BLOG
...THINK IT WAS THE FOURTH OF JULY...
Posted: 7/5/2010 1:55:22 PM
Two hundred and thirty four years ago, 54 white guys sat in a hot, sweaty room without air conditioning, indoor plumbing or catering, dressed in wool, wearing wigs and three-pointed hats and signed, quite possibly, the most brilliant and complete document enumerating the inherent rights and privileges of human beings on planet earth. The house in which I sit, purchased with currency I earned by forging my own path and interjecting my own voice of creativity into the public conversation, is a testament to that document and the blood, sweat and tears that ultimately consecrated it. So is yours. The freedoms born from it's womb have allowed me to travel at will and speak and sing freely, without the fear of being silenced or arrested, and have, in turn, given me the opportunity to buy goods and services created by others who have been allowed to grow and expand beyond their own limitations, placing me here in my kitchen, adorned with appliances and light, temperature controlled and comfortable, and type these words from a personal, laptop computer. All of this is because of words penned by a 33-year-old lawyer, farmer, statesman, visionary ...all those years ago.
When I was 8-years-old, my family toured in Virginia and Maryland, giving my father the opportunity to introduce my brother and me to Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown. My young imagination took in redoubt number ten (the last stronghold taken by the colonials and the very ground on which the American Revolution was won), and conjured the blood and screams and sacrifice. I caught my father wiping tears at one point and although I didn't know exactly why, I knew this place was important and this land was sacred. From that day to this, I have been a student of the men and women of the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers.
As one learns about this time in history, you necessarily go through the gyrations of analysis and deconstruction. What starts as wild-eyed idealism, turns to contempt once you place slavery, sexism, racism and hypocrisy under the microscope of the present and judge other human beings out of context. The pendulum swings and you can begin to hate these guys with the same fervor with which you loved them at first introduction. The truth is they had the chance but didn't end slavery. The truth is many of them were slave owners. The truth is some of them were womanizers. The truth is some of them were racists and sexists. The truth is the "check" Martin Luther King Jr. talked about in his famous "I Have A Dream" speech wasn't cashed for many years in this country. I can easily see why some people of color may not be so excited about the 4th of July and might turn up their nose at all the red, white and blue and goofy white people eating cotton candy and mindlessly waving flags. I kind of get it. What many of us take for granted, often has a more complicated back story. The check, however, WAS written and it's still the hope of mankind in every corner of the planet. It's a promissory note from which generation after generation continues to draw. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," being guaranteed in writing, is still nothing short of a miraculous thing in the course of human events and I invite everyone to participate.
In 2010, it sometimes feels like we have drifted from the lofty ideal of that original, splendid declaration into the pragmatism of mediocrity. This nation often looks like a lumbering, over-served, over-medicated, over-weight, under-achieving, monolith, cowering in the middle. The sacred hopes and dreams of ancient men and women, fighting over tiny pieces of earth and breathing their last, desperate prayers for future generations, have melted into the mist and are now buried beneath the newest Wal-Mart/Applebees/Bed-Bath-and-Beyond strip mall plaza. Is this the America Ben Franklin placed his life on the line for? Are these the equally created men for which Thomas Jefferson wielded his considerable pen? Sometimes I wonder.
As I type this, a fevered debate is raging in this new world. A rediscovery of these men and their documents is taking root in the land built upon them. I think that's a good thing. Unbelievably and maddeningly, the fight over capitalism and communism is again in the fore. I thought we settled that 25 yeas ago. But alas, as the founders themselves knew, freedom must continually be cultivated and earned. I feel our nation in the process of that even now. Last week, a United States congresswoman, in the middle of a Supreme Court confirmation hearing, asked the nominee questions about slumber parties and the latest Twilight movie. My stomach aches when I think of this. In this hollowed room, built on the backs of slaves yet to be freed by its own deliberations, where wars against tyranny had been declared and won and the rights of women had been ratified, a duly elected public servant of the greatest nation on earth, casually discussed frivolous pop culture with a potential supreme court justice ...on the tax-payers' dime. My goodness. What have we become?
Though mountains of complication have grown and rivers of blood have run through this land since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, I, for one, still believe in its core values and in its genius as a liberating key for the prisons of all mankind. In my mind, the truths are still self-evident; That all men (and women) are indeed created equal; that governments can only derive their power from the consent of the governed; that to ensure these rights we must all continually pledge our lives, fortunes and sacred honor. On this fourth day of a new July, I for one, will be basking in my own unalienable rights and pursuing happiness. I hope to see you there.
R
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