Flag of the U.S.S.Constitution
A country is like a person. It is neither wholly good nor wholly bad. Countries have a lifetime and display national characteristics by which they become defined. The French are romantic, the Italians are creative, The Germans are precise, Americans are extroverted and brash. Any sort of generalization is both correct and incorrect at the same time.
On the fourth of July, Americans celebrate themselves, the founding of their country, and their country’s achievements. Celebrations are good as they force the negative, combatively contentious personalities to rethink their nature, ideals, and history in the form a more complete view.
Now that the left has taken to criticizing Donald Trump for everything and anything, they have also seized on the extravaganza he is planning to celebrate the Fourth as a day for criticism of his plans for a more military inclusive demonstration than some of his predecessors. Conservatism Bittersweet will pass by their carping and whining, because it is more important to reflect on the meaning of American history than it is to acknowledge the irrational hate speech of a deranged opposition.
The United States was the first nation to establish a modern Republican form of government, the significance of which cannot be overstated. Providing a constructive mechanism for disagreement and debate allowed the country to adjust to historical changes as it grew and matured based on established principles of equality in discourse. The founding of the United States Constitution has been the country’s finest achievement. The one great failure was the Civil War. But even the great failure was turned into a triumph when the country defeated the Confederacy after choosing Abraham Lincoln, the finest president since George Washington. Slavery, an archaic legacy left by the English, was eliminated and opened the door to other changes to the countries oppressed minority. Thus, the greatest of the Constitutional achievement has been the ability to change over time—to adjust to the evolving problems.
Contrary to the Marxian, Socialist view, the future cannot be predicted. The future is like the weather and is the summation of forces too complex for even supercomputers to understand. What took humanity so long to evolve to this point of industrial and intellectual accomplishment? Partly it has been a matter of scale. There must be an underlying economic base to produce what the world has produced in its abundance. But it has also been the ability to achieve free thought and innovate based on that free thought, where others feared to go or could not imagine. Greatness does not come so much from overcoming fear as it comes from individuals acting fearlessly for the next great idea that moves the world. All democracies owe the United States for the precedent that allows them to achieve and grow. The top ten innovative countries in the world are all democracies. The United States is third in per capita patents in the world. We are the engine of successful world economies, and have been so for many years.
Among the great achievements of the United States, has been the reaper by Cyrus McCormick, innumerable inventions from Thomas Edison, and many other Industrial achievements by Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton, Samuel Morse, Elias Howe, and a long list of others who facilitated economic growth. That the United States grew into a mighty industrial and international power allowed it to defend itself and others against dictatorships and oppressors around the world. One thing leads to another for a country as for a person.
Social growth has been marked by many successes. Overcoming slavery and granting women’s suffrage broadened the countries world view. Providing a haven for masses of poor from oppressive or depressed countries from around the world has benefitted the growth and understating of Americans and made the point that there is value in people around the world who only need a haven to survive and succeed. America has been that umbrella for the world—a place of comfort, opportunity, and rest from malevolent oligarchy.
Nothing is more significant than the amount of wealth America has produced. Sometimes this concept is maligned as greed or selfishness. But economic wealth has allowed the country to defend itself against vicious foes who do not uphold basic human rights. It has allowed the country to develop life saving drugs, medical devices and procedures for the entire world. The nation’s wealth has fed the world when a part of it would otherwise have starved. For many, the United States has been the savior from oppression of the body, mind, and soul. From the very founding of the country, disparate peoples have been saved by American generosity, openness, and innovation founded on a powerful economic engine.
Perhaps one of America’s great strengths is to acknowledge its failures. Slavery, mistreatment of native peoples, and the exclusion of women from political decision making, reflected poorly on the country, though world conditions were no better. In contemplating our ideals of democracy and capitalism, we can look backward and see how our democracy has led the world in human and material advancement.
We can and should salute our flag proudly for what we have accomplished. We can look upon our beautiful land as a gift from God. It is a gift we must work and nurture, for nothing is certain except we shall be rewarded for doing what is right, just, and fair in a world where these values do not always survive or flourish. We also salute those of us who never made it. We salute the dead of our wars who fell on beaches and fields so that the rest of us could carry on in their name. They rest in peace on foreign lands as well as domestic, and in our memorial to them we pledge a better life for those who arrive in the future. Individually we remember the immortal words of an American who did what no human could ever do again by establishing our flag on the infinities of space, as we live our principles, both individually and collectively, for every day; we take “one step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
