Tomorrow, Friday, July 4, we’ll celebrate the nation’s 249th birthday. It’s quite a feat, celebrating so many birthdays until you think about how young a country we are compared to some of the other great democracies around the world.
It’s hard to fathom the notion a group of patriots literally put their lives on the line and signed a declaration of independence informing the British monarchy its leadership and repressive rule were no longer desired. The word, ‘patriot’ is far too liberally used these days compared to people who risked charges of treason to the crown. And yet, they did it willingly to experience a level of freedom they could not enjoy in England.
Here in the United States, we routinely see examples of people who go above and beyond in demonstrating how much this country and the freedoms means to them, freedoms so many take for granted.
In April of 1976 at Dodgers’ Stadium, Rick Monday rescued an American flag. A 37-year old man and his son, 11, breached security and got on to the playing field. They planned to set an American flag ablaze. The man was protesting his wife’s imprisonment in a mental health facility. Monday, playing for the Chicago Cubs, raced across the outfield grass toward the two men and scooped the flag into his arms and saved it from ignition.
Many members of the home town crowd stood and applauded Monday’s quick thinking and his actions. A message on the scoreboard congratulated the opposing outfielder for a “great play.” Monday later told reporters he had seen too many former soldiers who carried with them the scars of war to allow two protestors to carry out the act. Soldiers, men and women alike, Monday said, were the real heroes. In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled flag burning is protected speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution.
In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled members of the National Socialist Party of America, a group of self-styled Nazis planned a march in Skokie, Ill., a city populated by 40,000-plus Jews, many of them survivors of the Holocaust during World War II, legally had the right to march, again a right protected by the First Amendment.
That’s one of the beauties of America the Founding Fathers could have never imagined, that even an act as wrong as burning the flag or Nazis demonstrating in a town of 40,000-plus Jews, are freedoms too many people take for granted but the government can’t take away.
Of course, the Founding Fathers never could have imagined some of the issues we face today. They never could have imagined people living outside the norms of the rest wanting to be treated with the same rights and decency as those in the mainstream. They never could have imagined people using weapons to ruthlessly and senselessly kill others. That doesn’t mean we should take away weapons from everyone, but rather find ways to keep weapons out of the hands of those who ought not have access to them.
To honor those who helped create the country we celebrate this weekend and the freedoms accompanying living here, we should work as hard to find ways to coexist in peace as those who would tread on the rights of others. Call me an idealist, but we all yearn for a world where people can live in peace and express our differences amicably. Let us start here at home with our own little corner of the world. The founders of our country came here yearning to be free from a world where a central authority dominated how they would live and where they should be worshipping. Imagine if the king had access to social media.
So, this weekend we celebrate the birthday of our democracy, a constitutional federal republic. Participate in it or don’t kvetch about what became law. Consider respecting the rights of others as you would want them to do for you.
Enjoy your weekend. Be safe. Have fun