Honoring the Declaration

Friends,

Amidst the neighborhood bursts of fireworks, I am joining many of you this evening to commemorate (celebrate?) the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Our country was birthed when a select number of men representative of colonial leadership formally declared that the colonies of our nation were now separate from the rule of the English crown. It was a bold move of insurrection in response to the systematic economic exploitation of the still unformed union of the various colonies. The risky declaration created excitement especially because it was to be guided by a new set of moral principles that featured individual equality and legal recourse and rights to protect from arbitrary oppression. It envisioned a commitment to a whole new form of democratic governance, and for all this we are certainly grateful for the courage and enlightened philosophical vision of the founders who created the final document only after intense debates prior to the signing. I agree it is a monumental document, not only in terms of American history, but in the development of our modern world. It is, however, only a beginning, and the 250 years since have been a constant effort to address the document’s faults and to continue to try to interpret and revise it in each historical era.

During much of my life I believed and supported the virtue of the revolutionary experiment declared on that 4th of July in 1776. I am pleased it challenged the hierarchies and oligarchies that had defined the dominant model of European governance. And like all experiments it has needed to account for major faults that were sanctioned or ignored. Major among them the founders were trying to establish a united nation, based on the principle of equality, but within the hypocritical context of the prevalent, economic exploitation of slavery. And the original high ground of moral intentions were thus severely compromised from the beginning. The economic incentives of profit, labor, and industry became more important than acknowledging or ignoring the cruelty and exploitation woven into the original document.

Consequently during the generations that followed, including my own, the horrors of slavery were largely hidden in plain sight by the heavily dominant white culture that governed much of my life. In spite of the high-minded religious and philosophical commitment to equality, the country has struggled with assumptions of superiority that fostered discrimination by the dominant white European settlers supported by the churches and regional and local law that limited, or prevented, the freedom and rights of the minorities deemed “less than the privileged white” - people of color, sexual orientation, indigenous, among others. This discriminatory bubble is what I grew up in, and It is therefore difficult for me to celebrate the Declaration of Independence model of governance without acknowledging and facing the grave fault that must be overcome. And this struggle continues today, of course.

In my most tolerant moments I tend to think of our now 250 year old governmental experiment as similar to the latter stages of adolescence or early twenties, especially among young males. On the one hand there is such beauty and hope in us when we are young, but we have so much to learn about compassion, grace, cooperation and social, environmental and communal maintenance. I remember reeling among questions of vocation, relationship, self-identity, and self-confidence myself during those years . Our culture provides many young people with an array of positive preparatory options while an even larger number struggle for independence and purpose amid poverty, poor guidance and little accountability that avoids final confrontation with the law and social accountability. So it seems with our confusions of our nation today. We seem not to have a unified or established vision, or how to be accountable and humanely directive of the safety of a democratic rule of law and communal compassion.

Then on the other hand I see our nation, like our still unsettled youth, with a history of established principles of law and cooperation available to them that can be renewed. Can the original encoded intentions of equality and freedom in the Declaration of Independence be forged into a new frame of government such as Christian Democratic Socialism? I think so, but it will demand as much from us now as a nation to live up to our ideals as it was to declare them in the first place. I am so impressed with the young people in my family and those I have gotten to know. I am still impressed we are a promising young nation. May we all find the will and means to initiate though new leadership and insight a government better able to reestablish and declare the moral principles of equality, freedom, and personal dignity that were envisioned in the original Declaration.of Independence.
Peace,
Tom