There are few holidays with as many simple delights and as few complications as the Fourth of July. Most Americans treat it as a welcome occasion each year to enjoy summer fun with family and share a collective birthday party. Despite all the vexing conflicts of the 21st century United States, Independence Day still represents the most courageous act of the nation’s history, something to celebrate and honor. That was a declaration of sovereignty, which was finally won 230 years ago for the price of a bloody Revolutionary War.
But freedom? That’s a treasure that’s earned incrementally and defended constantly, and the fighting goes on.
The evidence of that is everywhere, and not just within American shores.
The most incendiary example of recent days, of course, is found in Egypt. The first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, has been toppled after a populist uprising, with the backing of the military.
In the context of that country’s sectarian divisions, just how Egypt’s armed forces will fare with its suspension of the constitution will only be clear in the coming days. Its last dictator was overthrown only two years ago, and the establishment of full democracy in that country is an unfinished project.
Before anyone can too easily dismiss the turbulent wake of the "Arab spring" as failed freedom-fighting, we need to consider our own history, too.
Full rights for anyone other than white property owners were accorded only gradually in 19th- and 20th-century America. States dropped property ownership as a qualification to vote, slavery was abolished, women were granted suffrage, the Civil Rights Act passed. The Voting Rights Act also became law, but even now, with a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, that effort to ward off discrimination at the ballot box has entered a new transitional phase.
We are still battling over many issues, not the least of which is another determination by that same court on same-sex marriage. The majority opinion of the court was that the federal government could not justify giving benefits to one legally married couple and not another, on the basis of gender.
Also recently we were reminded that there’s always a danger of government being too intrusive in private lives, even if the interest of national security is the rationale. That prospect is all the more likely today, given the access to private data enabled by technology that never could have been envisioned when the Constitution was written and adopted.
Democracy is a messy business. If striking a balance among all our national interests and needs were an easy thing, we probably would not be still engaged in this struggle after almost 21⁄2 centuries.
But it’s a worthwhile pursuit, and most would agree that America has persevered through most of these fights with its essential values intact.
So there’s reason to celebrate the day of simple delights. Yes, it sometimes seems that we stumble as much as we govern, but ultimately the country continues to navigate through all its complexities with resilience.
The fight for freedom goes on, and that’s what renews the great democratic experiment.
That happens every day, but on this one, let’s just enjoy the gift of being Americans.
