A Few Fourth Thoughts
I was in elementary school when I heard my father say for the first time, “America is the best country on earth.” In the moment, I found this statement rather pompous. Who was he to know? He’d never lived anywhere else longterm. Weren’t there a lot of problems (this was during the Great Recession)?
I still wrestle with those questions today, as the divide between the “#ProudtobeanAmerican” camp and the “#FvcktheFourth” battle it out over Twitter hashtags today. The extreme-averse person that I am, I wonder if there isn’t a middle ground. Something somewhere between the belief that America has rarely, if ever, made a mistake and the idea that America is a disgusting place to live.
I’m here to tell you that I think there is a middle ground.
The photo above shows the existence of just such a middle ground. We see the flag, a patriotic symbol of America, flying in the wind. We see dark storm clouds behind the flag — the problems America is facing: inequality, economic issues, the pandemic, social unrest, etc. Storms typically bring winds, right? Well, that goes to show that the flag isn’t flying in spite of the winds that these storms are bringing; it’s swaying back and forth because of those storm winds. As those winds grow stronger and more and more problems come to light, we need the flag more than ever as a common ground. This is the reason people are opposed to the Confederate flag: it divides instead of uniting. Our American flag celebrates our imperfection, but our stubborn perseverance throughout the past 244 years.
Let me bring one more thing to your attention: the light behind the clouds. That’s us. We the American people, are the best thing that has ever happened to America. We are the ones who can bring change about, we are the ones who make America great. It isn’t our military, our industrial power, or even our current leadership; it’s us. All of us.
So, as we celebrate this Fourth of July in a time of unprecedented unrest and change, remember that wanting change and loving America are not mutually exclusive. We can celebrate the progress we’ve made while gearing up for the work ahead. Fly your flag proudly today; we need it the most when the storms are the strongest. Let it unify, not divide.
Let’s return to the assertive statement made by my father years ago and unpack it. Is America the greatest country on earth? It’s definitely different from other countries. Let’s start there. America is unique in successfully overthrowing the British Empire beginning with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the signing of which is what we celebrate today. The oft-quoted guaranteed rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” were pretty ground-breaking at the time, as was the assertion that “all men are created equal.” Was everyone viewed as equal? Did they all have those natural rights? Absolutely not. Not slaves, not women, not Native Americans. But the idea was there. A seed was planted. A goal of equality that we are still working to achieve.
Yes, we’ve made tons of mistakes. Slavery is a huge one. There are others too. The exploiting of workers during the Industrial Revolution, The breaking of treaties with Native Americans (repeatedly), Japanese internment camps, racist immigration laws (I’m thinking specifically of those targeting Asian immigrants), to name a few.
But there are also some things that we’ve done right. We fought on the right side in the World Wars. We’ve been on the cutting edge of many inventions and new technologies (click here for a list of twenty you’re probably thankful for). Best of all, we have freedoms that aren’t guaranteed in other countries. Read this; it’s eye-opening.
Perhaps the best part of America though is that we try to fix our mistakes. The best thing we can do is admit we make them, and then try to make them right. This doesn’t always work out perfectly for sure, but it’s a step. For example, we’ve granted reparations to survivors of Japanese internment camps. We’ve made apologies to Native Americans for our past treatment of them. Through the Civil Rights movements and other protests, we’ve expanded our definition of equality for all close to what it truly means. We’ve banned poll taxes, literacy tests, and other mechanisms designed to suppress voters. Through elections, we the people have a say in who runs our government. That’s not true everywhere.
America is always in need of improvement. It may not be possible to objectively assign “greatest country in the world” to a specific nation. But in my book, America will always be the greatest country in the world.
