The Speaking of the Truth of the American Experiment
I’m not particularly proud to be white. I’m not specifically proud to be a man. Not so much in the self-flagellation of the moment where the ultimate villain these days is a white man (although white women are inching closer to the pole position in that race). I’m not ashamed of either label because logically there are villains who are white men does not equate all white men with villainy.
I am proud to be a citizen of the United States.
In the Orson Scott Card novel “Speaker of the Dead” (and, yes, Card is a problematic author who wrote amazing science fiction) the character of Ender becomes a planetary priest of sorts. The idea is that when someone dies, the Speaker of the Dead goes around and finds out everything about the person. The good he did, the bad he did, the charitable acts and the thievery.
Instead of a eulogy espousing the best parts of a life, the Speaker of the Dead paints a picture of the whole life. To only review the noble segments without balance is false. To only focus on the worst elements is equally false. To truly celebrate the dead, we need the full deal to contemplate.
While America is far from dead and the Grand Experiment in Liberal Democracy far from complete, Independence Day should be a celebration as well as a recalibration.
We can and should celebrate the best parts today.
The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution are modern marvels. While modeled after other documents, the entirety of our founding principles are unique in history and worth preserving.
The articles of Amendment that include Freedom of Speech, Expression, Religious Practice, and the Press are likewise unusual and amazing.
The victory over the Confederacy and the abolishing of slavery is worth a couple pats in the back.
Raise a glass to Birthright Citizenry. Incredibly rare in Western Civilization.
American culture from the writing of Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, and Arthur Miller to the music of Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, and Aaron Copeland. Include Hollywood’s domination of film and the mythologies of the comic book industry, some of the brilliant television and radio, and a few kudos are earned.
NASA, the Internet, the personal computer, the smartphone. We’re an innovative bunch of assholes!
Social Security and Unions are solid achievements, too.
Celebrate these things while still recalibrating the fault lines of our worst natures:
Chattel slavery, Jim Crow laws, and a continued fight for equality for all citizens.
The marginalization of women and gays for most of our history is a stain in need of removing.
The constant tug of war between the needs of the many (Socialism) and the needs of the few (Capitalism).
American Healthcare is quite advanced but access to it sucks.
We’re still in the jaws of what Eisenhower warned us about with our Military Industrial Complex. Instead of being known for our military might, we should be heralded for our progressive human rights.
We’re fucking fat.
Our consumer habits are destroying the environment’s ability to sustain us.
Our individualism is, on whole, a great thing about Americans. Taken to the extremes, however, leads us to be pigheaded non-mask wearing dipshits.
We embrace stupidity in our rejection of expertise and reliance on our individual lived experience.
Genocide of the Native American people still needs some attention.
Lots of problems. Lots of ugliness.
In my lifetime, on the other hand:
The Civil Rights Act was made law.
We legalized a woman’s right to choose an abortion or motherhood.
Discrimination is virtually outlawed for every aspect of society.
People in extreme poverty fell by 137,000 every day for the last twenty-five years.
Disproportionate incarceration of black Americans has decreased each year for the past decade as have the disproportionate police killings of black men. In fact, all police caused deaths have been in the decline.
Women who’ve been harassed at work are finding justice in ways not possible before.
The reason there are so many viral videos of police killing black people and people freaking in public in entitled and bigoted ways is because those are the exception. 95% of the time, people are kind and courteous, are simply doing the best they can to get on in a world on fire. 95% of the time, we’re doing just fine.
If there is anything that defines America it is not bigotry, patriarchy, or an imperialist impulse. It is unbridled optimism. It is the belief in the experiment.
We’re in a rough spot just lately but on this Independence Day 2020, I can celebrate and recalibrate because I still believe in the goals set out on parchment 244 years ago.
