"happy fourth"
let america be america again
Emily and I took a long walk around our neighborhood today.
As we passed others who took the day to complete yard work, grill outside, and host family gatherings, we heard the same celebratory greeting accompanied by a warm smile:
“Happy Fourth!”
”You too!” we awkwardly replied as we waved and kept walking.
…
I’ve found myself increasingly unhappy over the past several years every time July 4th comes around.
I can’t get past the irony that as we communally celebrate our independence as a nation, we remain so deeply isolated and independent as individuals in our society.
It is as if our liberation is from our relationship to our neighbors, our communities, and the land beneath our feet. We are freed to endlessly strive after our self-improvement, even if it kills our nieghbors (and eventually, ourselves). It is as if we’ve taken the independence we celebrate too far.
Amidst the realities of racism, systemic oppression, poverty, environmental devastation, repealing of rights, and injustice that continues to pervade our nation, I find it harder and harder each year to reply, “Happy Fourth.”
In an eloquent poem titled “Let America Be America Again,” novelist Langston Hughes offers a similar sentiment:
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Yes, Hughes is right. The promises America has made—espeically those found in the Declaration of our Independence—are often unrealized and (for some) aspirational.
To name this reality is not to disown our country, move towards some sort of treason, or even hold hatred in our hearts. It is to, with love for our country, take an honest look at our world around us—not just our independent and isolated reality, but the experience of our neighbors who suffer under the weight of America—and, when greeted with “Happy Fourth”, reply with love and hope…“perhaps next year.”
Reading:
Kenosis: The Self-Emptying of Christ in Scripture and Theology, Paul T. Nimmo & Keith L. Johnson, eds. (Eerdmans, 2022).
This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World - Norman Wirzba
Watching:
Stranger Things (Netflix)
Listening:
Lavender Days (Album) - Caamp
sheluvme - Tai Verdes
Tread Carefully - SZA