JULY 4, AN ILLUMINATING DAY
Today we celebrate Independence Day. What do those words mean? “Independence Day” conjures different meanings for different folks.
To Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and our other Founding Fathers, it was an exciting term that meant both fear and rejoicing. After our Declaration of Independence was signed, Franklin quipped with both wit and solemnity as only Franklin could do, “Let us all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Adams, on the other hand, saw the need to celebrate. He wrote his wife, Abigail, “I am apt to believe that it [Independence Day] will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.” The small business owners who sell “illuminations” throughout our local counties this time of year owe Adams a debt of gratitude.
Seventy-six years later in 1852 on the eve of the War Between the States, the courageous former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglas was asked to speak on Independence Day in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In a long and eloquent oration to fellow citizens he stated, “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”
Thirteen years and nearly 900,000 deaths later, in 1865 the “gross injustice” was corrected for African-Americans. Not only was slavery outlawed in northern states (it was outlawed previously in the Confederate states by President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation), but black men received the right to vote. American women would have to wait another 55 years to achieve the same rights.
During the dark days of early World War II when victory for the allies was in serious doubt, President Franklin Roosevelt on July 4, 1942, said, “To the weary, hungry, unequipped Army of the American Revolution, the Fourth of July was a tonic of hope and inspiration. So is it now. The tough, grim men who fight for freedom in this dark hour take heart in its message — the assurance of the right to liberty under God — for all peoples and races and groups and nations, everywhere in the world.”
From the opposite perspective this week comes these words from the race-baiting newspaper The Final Call: “The flag waving, cookouts, fireworks and parades are staples of the July 4 celebrations that punctuate America every year. Black folks will be among those celebrating, eating, drinking and sometimes waving flags. But before the inception of this country, blacks have never been fully included.”
The above quotes by Franklin, Adams, Douglas, and Roosevelt focus on Independence Day to illuminate the need for change and to inspire Americans to achieve such change. The last quote, on the contrary, inspires resentment. It is hateful and divisive, and doesn’t inspire the need for change as did former progressive causes like the abolition of slavery, women’s right to vote, equal educational opportunities, or civil rights.
Over the years, Independence Day implied different meanings for American citizens. We don’t always sing from the same sheet of patriotic music. What is significant is that despite our differences, as painful as they might be, we compromise, put issues behind us and work for a better country. There is a huge chasm between those who desire to solve problems and move forward and those who want to prolong or create problems to bolster their self-serving radical agenda.
That chasm becomes clear under the illuminating glare of one’s perspective of Independence Day.
Roger Smith, local author, is a frequent contributor to the Times Free Press.