Weekend self-care open thread—Happy Independence Day!
This weekend we celebrate this country's Declaration of Independence. And it's a 4th of July like we've never seen before.
We're in the middle of a plague. Because of this plague, we're in the middle of an economic meltdown. And we're in an economic meltdown because of the feckless incompetents who claim the mantle of "leadership".
The country is in a holding pattern. There's not much to celebrate this year. Or at least it seems so.
But what there's to celebrate is hope.
This country has many faults. Its Declaration itself is fraught with problems, the major one being that the drafters of the Declaration pointed out the British Crown's unwillingness to protect colonists against "savage Indians" as one of the reasons for severing all political ties. And, of course, the Declaration's lofty words didn't apply to women, or to Black slaves, or to poor whites.
But that's the thing about this country: we are perpetually becoming more than we at first seem to be. The protests over George Floyd would have made the Founders spin in their graves. Their world map couldn't conceive of such events. We are an evolving experiment in self-government and expanding the circle of citizenship and humanity. Those of our fellow-citizens, blinkered in their fear, who wish to retreat behind ramparts and pull up the ladders behind them, betray this country's history and values.
America is only America when it's in the process of becoming better than it was. And the definition of "better" isn't really up for debate: "Better" does, in fact, mean its plain meaning. It means that the descendants of Frederick Douglass make a video reading his famous speech about the meaning of Independence Day to a Black slave. Better means that the descendants of the Lakota block the way to the current Occupant of the White House's hate rally on their sacred land. "Better" means that the women who weren't even thought of in the Declaration are about to deal a famous defeat to the Rat of the West Wing. "Better" means that freedom increases year by year, and tyranny is stamped down when it rears its head.
The battle is never over. As Tolkien said, the Shadow always comes back. That's what it is in this fallen world. Our job as citizens and as human beings is to stand against the Shadow, to be ever vigilant. We haven't been for too long, and the world is in a more parlous state because of it. Our work over the next few years is to rebuild that path to progress, to again expand that circle of belonging. It's really what makes us Americans.
Stand strong, friends. This country isn't done yet.