‘Hamilton’ says much about us, our independence
The Independence Day that just passed a week ago today proudly suggests hard-fought autonomy, a self-determination in the new nation.
Now, it is not so new, and our path at this moment seems dependent indeed — on science, on discipline, on lucid reflection, on eye-to-eye connection even as we refrain from clutching one another’s throats.
So much change. A movement is a moment with legs.
The Confederate flag. The Redskins and Indians nicknames.
Confederate monuments.
Aunt Jemima.
Can’t say I’d miss any of them.
But I’d remember all of them, and not only as failed or bad examples.
Those are the easy things to address and accomplish, not even in the same mind space as racial equality and social justice, and we well know how easy it is to stray from what the United States promises — present tense intended.
Like millions recently, I experienced “Hamilton,” the musical about the founding father that dominated Broadway and is now available on the Disney Plus streaming service.
The Tony-, Grammyand Pulitzer Prize-winning blockbuster “Hamilton: An American Musical”
will have its Dayton premiere courtesy of Dayton Live during the 20212022 season.
What is striking about “Hamilton” of course is how it contemporizes (and embellishes) the story of Alexander Hamilton, by most accounts a brilliant and prolific man with little of the flash and advantages of his peers, into a rousing and emotional journey. At the core of that is the realization that the people who hammered their way to a framework for the country were just that — people.
Even more important than that is the notion that we shouldn’t confine greatness, weakness, envy, ambition, anger or any human failing or aspiration to a single era, a single race, a single demographic, a single creative style or a single mind. The raging, unflagging energy of “Hamilton” tells us that we all can get it: Hey, all men are created equal and, no, I am not throwing away my shot.
While we can blithely and superficially claim independence from foreign rule, we very much depend on the founding principles to guide us. That more perfect union only grows nearer when the universality of those ideas is universally understood and employed. “Hamilton” raucously represents that concept.
In this age where icons and language are being reconsidered and challenged, it’s important to ask whether it brings us closer to the idea of one nation.
For those on the margins and long denied the fruits of liberty’s lifelong pursuits, the answer is: How can it not?
The answer also is: It depends. On determination. On an awakening. On the arc of justice. On a posture of service. On a spirit of solemn reckoning.
On us.
Steve Morrison is an educator and was a journalist for 25 years.