Unite once more this Fourth of July

Happy Birthday, USA! It’s been a fascinating 241 years of existence. This birthday, perhaps, is a bit more troubled than many in modern times. The nation remains at war — nearly forgotten wars, with the families and friends of those in harm’s way almost the only ones paying close attention. That’s wrong.

One hundred years ago in 1917, when the United States prepared to enter World War I, it was all hands on deck. The country raised its taxes and sold bonds; children planted gardens; men signed up for the draft; the Red Cross took up donations on the Plaza; and employers let workers go home early to tend to crops — the entire nation was engaged in the battle, the collective might and will of the United States of America joined together to fight. No longer.

In the wars of today, we do not raise taxes to pay the costs; no, the talk in Washington is about cutting taxes despite the reality of our fighting forces in harm’s way. We are not holding patriotic rallies on the Plaza, or growing Victory Gardens or encouraging all draft-age men to sign up. The burden of military sacrifice is not shared across the different classes and cultures of our country — the war seems removed from our collective consciousness.

Yet at home, another war is going on that we can’t escape. Our country is wrangling with the uncivil nature of our public debate. From political parties that will not work together for solutions to common problems to a president who strikes the world as a petulant man-child, lashing out with his Twitter finger at any imagined slight, to a coarseness in our language and attitudes, there is about this nation an unpleasant cloud. We are becoming less than the nation built by our forefathers and mothers, an unfortunate situation, indeed.

This Fourth of July will be celebrated as always, with barbecues, bunting and the bursting of fireworks overhead. It is a loud holiday, much as we are a loud nation — so impressed with ourselves, our achievements, our potential. There will be noise (please keep dogs indoors so they are not scared) and there will be spectacle (thanks to the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe for stepping up to save Santa Fe’s fireworks).

But as a nation, there will not be — and this is to be regretted — that coming together of one nation, under God, to celebrate what joins us. We are too divided, too annoyed with each other and all too sure that our position is the best one.

Yet, despite the discord that remains all too real this Fourth of July, the United States is one country — the Civil War proved that we should remain indivisible. We relish our independence, cherish our freedom, and demand liberty and justice, if not for all, for most of us.

This contentious debate among citizens still has not reached the lowest point possible. We are not at war with each other. No state is plotting open secession, and come 2018, the nation will return to the polls to elect new representatives to serve in the House of Representatives (and in New Mexico, a new governor, House members and other elected officials). This democratic republic, this experiment in letting the people — not an aristocracy or king or ruling class — govern, is still working.

On the Fourth of July — despite our differences — let us give thanks for our nation, for those brave men and women who chose to break away from England and chart a different course. We, their descendants, have the solemn responsibility of building this legacy for a brighter future. That means we must stop this partisan warfare in our Congress and in our nation.

As President Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Can we agree to disagree, but still look for common ground and not remain in permanent campaign mode, with policy questions a matter of wins and losses rather than solutions? The answer to that question, it seems, will determine the future of this great United States.