America has our back

I took a modest vacation to New Hampshire over the week of July 4 to a lovely inn nestled in the White Mountains. Lawn chairs looked out on the whole of Mt. Washington and a pool and patio gave us vistas of green ridges opposite. It was idyllic.

We had traveled to New Hampshire on Interstate 91, one of the crown jewels of the Eisenhower highway system. Tuesday evening would bring fireworks, a reminder of the cost of the liberty and freedom we enjoyed. The day before, we had driven up Mt. Washington, followed by Muslim families, their women wearing hijabs, by bikers in leather and bandannas and more Americans like us.

Sitting in the jacuzzi that overlooked the mountains around us, it hit me: I was enjoying the “pursuit of happiness” that our Founding Fathers had intended in the Declaration of Independence and then enshrined and protected in our Constitution.

I was in the belly of the American dream, one that had proved itself again and again over centuries, matured through challenges and crises and met every conflict and change our fractious nation could throw at it.

Even as I percolated in the jacuzzi, members of the U.S. Senate were on recess, facing the deliberation and debate that was their constitutional job. They disagreed, stood on principle and stared down the opinions and consequences of their vote on the Affordable Care Act.

Elsewhere, our military patrolled, stationed and stood ready across a dangerous globe, protecting all of us, extending the power and influence of our leaders to friends and foes alike. Have we had unjust and ill-advised wars? Of course. Have we also stood as a bulwark of global democracy and freedom? Yes.

Not long ago, the Supreme Court validated the authority and constitutionality of that same Affordable Care Act and gave the landmark right to marriage to gay and lesbian Americans. They also gave corporations the right to unlimited donations to political campaigns under the guise of free speech, and other businesses the right to deny benefits that were at odds with their religious beliefs.

No one is happy with all their decisions but the Supreme Court was also doing its job. So was I paying taxes, voting, talking politics, or not, with my neighbor and sharing in the blessings of liberty our founders envisioned.

Much has been said of the rights and prerogatives and virtue of the federal government and its place in our lives. Some in politics want to make that government “small enough to drag behind the barn and beat to death with a stick.” To which I say: Let’s look at the document, to what the framers of our Constitution intended.

Make no mistake, the creators of that “miracle at Philadelphia” knew exactly what they were doing. They laid out, in full and durable detail, a blueprint for a nation and its governance. They created structures and rights, and principles to serve and protect us, even from each other.

They saw, I believe, the challenges of the future and baked in the ideals, common sense and resilience necessary to meet them. They knew, and embodied, all the fractious difficulty of democracy and mankind and planned accordingly.

Are we perfect? Not yet. Do Native Americans have a different view of our history? Of course. But no one can argue that this unique experiment in liberty and self-rule hasn’t endured and succeeded, remarkably, and with gusto.

We had to change rooms after the first night we arrived and we encountered the cleaning staff as they finished our new room. They were, like a lot of Americans, working too hard for too little, without benefits and little respect. Did anyone have their backs?

No one owes us a dollar but look to the Constitution’s first sentence and “promote the general welfare” is right there, after “justice” and “defense.” So yes, someone has our backs. It’s called America.

Make no mistake, the creators of that “miracle at Philadelphia” knew exactly what they were doing.

FILE PHOTO