July 4th, 2008
4th of July in one American year
“I always get nervous putting things on the car – bike racks, skis, top racks, Christmas trees, canoes, decals.”
—Barb F. Mason
“A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame / is the imprisoned lightning, and her name / Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand / glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command / the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.”
—The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus
“America, America / God mend thy every flaw / Confirm thy soul with self control / Thy liberty in law.”
—America the Beautiful
As a liberal-minded young American—growing up during the reign of possibly the worst president in U.S. history, no less—I am pseudo-obligated to carry a varying degree of distaste and disgust for the actions and errors of my country. When interfacing outside of the country, it wouldn’t be prudent to champion a nation that’s so questionable in the minds of many abroad, and when amongst other left-winging-folk, it would be uncool to associate with something so filled with mistakes.
But this is a big year. It’s an election year: it’s the end of the Bush era and the start of something new, whoever and whatever that may be being an improvement on what’s there now. It’s an Olympic year: even as the Games wane in their popularity, it’s still a time for our citizens to come together and cheer on their fellow Americans, hungrily counting our medals, excitedly lapping up the human interest to the stories. It’s a year when gas rockets past four dollars a gallon, when China stands poised to pick up where we left off, when homes and economies stand in peril, when our superpower status may begin to fade. When uncertainty could be all that binds us together.
I’m trying to change. I’m trying to see hope, and starting to feel it. I’m starting to wonder if maybe we can bring it back together again, if that wasn’t just an idealized notion, if we can take care of the poor, the tired, the tempest-tossed, without angering the rest. If perhaps I can stop worrying about being a ‘cool’ liberal and start being a thoughtful, unifying American…without feeling like that constitutes betrayal. And I think I’ll let this one big year be one big help in these attempts.
Happy 4th of July! I’m off to the northern woods of Wisconsin for a few days of lakewater, friends and family, and reading. Oh yeah and in case this was too dense, you really should check this out—hilarious:
http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/