Independence Day Inspiration: make it meaningful!

Larry Kummer, Editor

11 years ago

Summary; Today we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, a a milestone on the march to American independence. But we should also remember that journey’s now almost lost beginning — events equally heroic but more relevant and inspirational to us today. {1st of 2 posts today.}

“We have spent the prime of our lives in procuring {for our children} the precious blessing of liberty. Let them spend theirs in shewing that it is the great parent of science and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in both, always in proportion as it is free. ”

— Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Willard, 24 March 1789.

.
We’re free, but how did we become so? Every successful round of political reform begins with people deciding to act and then organizing like minded people. Why not celebrate Independence Day by joining this company of people who have profoundly shaped our civilization?

In 1772 Samuel Adams and others decided to start the Committees of Correspondence, the first step on the road to independence. In 1785 Benjamin Franklin and others organized the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society. In 1887 William Wilberforce and others began a crusade to end the slave trade in British ships.

Don’t expect fast results. These programs took years, decades, or generations of struggle to win. We forget this by focusing on the moments of triumph and forgetting the years of struggle that produced them. Perhaps on Independence Day we should read the speeches that led to the Declaration. Like this by Thomas Paine, from the first of the 16 “The Crisis” pamphlets (23 December 1776).

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. … What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off. … I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it.

Our times are not Paine’s. Our problems differ from those of 1776. Yet the underlying situation has its similarities. Liberty always has enemies, while citizens have their personal cares and no interest in exertions — let alone risking what they have — for abstractions like liberty and future generations. Rousing people to action is the first and most difficult step to reform. We can learn from the Founders in this, as in so many other things.

A suggestion for the 4th: you can help

When meeting with friends and family today, why not talk about liberty and responsibility (two sides of the self-government coin)? Find other people willing to work to retake the reins of America. Whatever your personal politics, I’m confident that together we know what needs to be done.

Freedom is an emergent property of citizens.