"Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on his own dunghill." -- Richard Aldington
I felt this was an appropriate quote for this week. Whenever the Fourth of July comes around, I always get very confused. What are we celebrating? What does fireworks and beer have to do with the birth of our country? Don't get me wrong, I love fireworks and beer. I like having a cookout. I like see the pretty explosions. In fact, we had people over for a cookout. Good times. But my problem comes when I start to think about the real meaning of the Fourth. What exactly are we celebrating? And then how should we celebrate it? Let's take a look at those two questions.
What are we celebrating?
Short answer: the birth of our country. The long answer: a bit more complicated. Being the U.S. history teacher, I tend to over explain when people ask me about the Fourth. The Declaration of Independence was approved July 2nd. It was signed throughout that summer. The myth was that it was signed completely on July 4th. That's not true. I understand that we need a cohesive date. We can't celebrate all summer long. Well, we could, but that would be extremely disruptive. So we celebrate on the Fourth. But again, what are we celebrating? The Declaration of Independence stated our break from Great Britain, but that didn't mean we were a sovereign nation. Until we fought the American Revolution and GB recognized us as an independent country, we were children throwing a tantrum. So would it be better to celebrate the birth of our country on the date the Treaty of Paris was signed? Or how about the date the modern Constitution was signed? Those dates make much more sense to me.
How should we celebrate?
On the Fourth, I see people drinking, eating, and making things explode. To me, that doesn't scream "we love and respect our country." It says "we like to party." Maybe we should be more reverent. Maybe we should attend more patriotic events. Maybe we should take a good look at the state of our country. Maybe we should have town hall meetings to make suggestions for the betterment of the community. Maybe we should teach our children the real history of our country, not the fluffy feel good nonsense. Or maybe we should just have a another beer and blow something up...
