Happy July 4th. I love this holiday, always have, and hope to always enjoy. There is nothing more American to me than the what this holiday commemorates, and that we do not often enough remember.
A small group of successful men, some of the richest in the colonies, the rest successful on a much more modest scale, did something amazing. They came together and debated and argued and came to a decision that had ramifications for every living soul in the colonies. It also held deeply dangerous meaning for each of them. They then signed their names to this treasonous, seditious document.
In the case of Hancock, he wanted King George to be sure to be able to read it. John Hancock was at one point, arguably, the richest man in the colonies. If he was not, another man that was integral to that debate and those meetings, George Washington, surely was. John Hancock believed he should have had the prominent position in the nation. He was campaigning, just like we see today.
However, there are very real differences that we should be educating our children and grand children about, between those folks and today's sunshine patriots and summer soldiers. First and foremost, the signatories of that initial Declaration were all in, literally. Understand the fact that every one of those men would have been hung, or otherwise executed, for signing that document and circulating it. Had we not won the war for independence, there was no chance that they would have been left to live.
None of them were ignorant of that fact. The vast majority that argued against independence, still signed the document, after the debate. These are people that had significant personal emnity and some were decades long disagreements and distaste for each other. There was a whole group of "Republicans" as we would term them, that did not advocate independence. They were leery of that leftist activity, and well aware of the costs associated with it. There was a whole group of "Democrats" who advocated complete dissolution and violent revolt immediately. They were impatient and dismayed at their timidity.
There were nasty exchanges, personal insults, lifelong enemies created and resolved. At the end, they came to a position and stood by it, though it met none of their complete desires. They then went about the business of designing, constructing and operating an entirely new governmental system. They were particularly poor at it. They had huge debt, ineffective and inefficient bureaucracy, public disagreements and petty insults, poor programs, corruption in the extreme, and social policies that were hated. Sound familiar?
They even had to move, en masse, as the British almost captured them with the city they were meeting in. They came back together in a new place and continued on in the work together. These men had a nation's entire future and their personal safety and integrity on the line, and after July 4, 1776, they did not waver as a group until they had won. They mostly hated one another by the end, and had definite divisions and already the beginnings of political parties.
It came to a duel within 20 years of the end of the Revolution, and two of the eminent leaders went and duelled over differences, resulting in the loss of Alexander Hamilton. We all know his killer's name, Aaron Burr, but few of us know the details of his accomplishments in the service of our nation. That is what the last quarter of the 1700's were like.
Imagine, if you will, the crop we have today being placed into that situation. It can't happen? I would humbly submit the election of 1860 and the resulting 50 years of struggle as evidence that it can and does happen. I would also submit the election of 1932 and the resulting 83 years of struggle as an additional example, with just as bloody and yet more lasting and compassionate outcome.
Times of disaster and dire threat occur, and we have somehow managed to craft our brand of inefficient and disturbingly successful brand of governmental response. We have stumbled into it at times, we have legitimately fought and died for it at times, we have not realized we have done it at times.
We are terrible at this. And, yet we are remarkable at this. No one group of people have done this as successfully and continually as we have. Don't understand Bernie Sanders, go look up Ben Franklin. Don't understand Hillary Clinton, go look up Susan B. Anthony. Don't understand Ted Cruz, go look up John Calhoun. Don't understand John Boehner, go look up Henry Clay. Don't understand Obama, go look up Woodrow Wilson. Nothing we face today is new in this nation.
We probably have between 0 and 50,000 years of continued relevance. It is entirely in the hands of God. If you want to know what will happen, you are going to have to pray and listen to the prophets. It is plausible that the anti-Christ will rise to power as our leader. That has been true since WWI when we became the engine of power in the global stage. It is implausible that Obama or any of the current 578 candidates for the 2016 election are that person.
We see so many signs of our time. Same sex marriage, racial violence, terrorism, poverty, corruption are all vividly present. None of them are any more fatal to America or morality than the myriad we have already overcome. What is most disturbing is our growing inability to disagree yet still move forward. We are not different, smarter, more talented or superior to the Americans of 1776. Thankfully, we are not the same, dumber, less talented or inferior to the Americans of 1776.
We have the same constraints and limitations and the same horizons and unlimited potential. I love this country and do not fear for our ascendence or decline. We should all realize what an amazing and yet, totally typical, collection of men in 1776 realized. We shall win or all hang together. Regardless of what we think of each other, we all have our role. Together we are invincible and infallible and inexhaustable. Together, we are dangerous, fallible, and bone tired. But, we are in it together.
Happy Independence Day! I hope you all disagree with me on something, so that we discuss it and we both learn. I hope you all agree with me on much, so that we eliminate the worthless arguments over shared positions. I promise that I will be there with you to the end, even though you may be completely wrong to my thinking. Because that is what America started as, and has remained, a community of imperfection and limitless potential, wrapped around disagreement and debate, dedicated to principles that improve and elevate us all.
If you want perfect, study the Bible, find salvation and know that in the presence of God, you will find it. You will not find it here on Earth, and certainly not in America. But, there is no better place on Earth to live out the wait for perfect. I am not discouraged by our faults. None of us should be, we have mapped out a highway of success that we continue to travel. I love this country and I love you all.
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