America: A Work in Progress
July 4th, 2008 by JAZZ SHAW
I was just reading one of many glowing proclomations on this, our Nation’s birthday, exhorting readers to remember the greatness of our nation, the ineffable wisdom of the founding fathers and the sacrosanct nature of the documents they left to guide through the centuries. And, of course, there is much to love about America today. But it is also worth remembering as we celebrate this holiday that most of us who grew up in middle of the last century received a somewhat sanitized version of events in our history lessons.
It is ofttimes tempting to think that the Founders sat down at a nicely finished, maple writing desk, dashed off a few immortal documents and voila - America sprang forth as if from whole cloth, a beacon for the hopeful, yearning masses, the guarantor of liberty and equality for mankind around the world. We very well might picture America as having immediately become that shining beacon on the hill, bursting forth into incandescence the moment the Declaration was signed. But truth, as they say, is the daughter of time, and we should try to bear in mind that it’s been a long road to get where we are today. Our ancestors had far more moles and blemishes than we might care to depict in their portraits, and in the practical lens of current enlightened thinking and practices, they would likely be shunned by the greater part of our society.
Several of the founders were in the business of trafficking in human flesh. Many were known in private to be enthusiastic embracers of the “rule of thumb” in its original meaning. (When beating one’s wife, it was proper manners to ensure you did not use a switch with a circumference greater than that of your thumb.) In their society, minorities, women, children, gays… none were considered the full measure of a “person” to the extent which landed white men were. The travesty of what we did to the indiginous natives during our divinely inspired march westward is a shame which we shall never overcome.
The country envisioned by the founders was also quite different than the one we enjoy today. They pictured a true republic of near autonomous states, each with its own ad hoc military and, if needed, border control. These states would glare warily at the Federal government, reminding it at all times that they would be ready, willing and able to take matters in their own hands if it got out of control.
I think many of those founding fathers would be as horrified to see what our country has evolved into today as we would be to meet them in person. We live in a wonderful America today and many of the fine qualities I listed above are present and strong - still with room for improvement, no doubt, but a superior place to live by any measure. But we didn’t start out that way. It’s been a long journey to achieve what we today take for granted. So as we celebrate this holiday, let us keep in mind the hard battles required to reach this point and renew our pledge to ensure we don’t slip backward toward darkness.
This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 11:54 am and is filed under Holidays, USA, Miscellaneous, History. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
