Y’all, Independence Day is a complicated holiday for me. I love holidays in general. I love wearing festive outfits and jewelry, I love the time spent with family and friends away from work. I love the shared celebration experience. I was also the kid in Intro to American Government in college who sat in the front row every day and teared up when the professor talked about the founding of this country. It was a totally novel thing they did! I also understand the complicated history that got us to where we are today. I know that when Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal” he really meant only white men. And really only certain white men. They didn’t even consider non-white people to be wholly human then. When the US Constitution was written, it was not intended to protect the rights of women or non-white people. The Founders owned other humans. Many of them, though, also recognized and acknowledged that things would change, and they expected the people of this country to make sure that the government they established “of the people, for the people, and by the people” would evolve to meet the needs of the future USA, one that they could not even imagine.

I’ve seen a lot of social media posts like this one in recent days:

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, it seems like some white folks, especially white women, are waking up to the fact that liberty is not necessarily guaranteed in the “land of the free.” Historically, liberty has only been guaranteed to a certain subset of US citizens, and that group has been intentionally expanded by those in power to include certain people to help those in power remain in power. (If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about here, I highly recommend the Racial Equity Institute, which offers training opportunities that help to explain how systemic oppression was written, both explicitly and implicitly, into our laws and societal structure.)

One simply needs to review US history to know how fraught with contradiction the story of America is: chattel slavery, reservations for indigenous folks, Jim Crowe, internment camps, oppression of LGBTQIA+ folks, a disastrous immigration system, unjust incarceration, etc., etc.

The more liberty folks have, the less power others have over us. The promise of this country is “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Notice it says and in that phrase. Every person in the USA should have all of these things afforded to them. Not as privileges available to a few, but as rights available to all. We cannot celebrate our own freedoms without acknowledging the ones we don’t have. Or the ones that our fellow Americans don’t have.

I will celebrate Independence Day today because I believe in the promise of America. I believe in the ideals upon which this country was founded, even if they meant something different then than they do today. I believe that all humans are created equal and that we all deserve the same rights. I believe that a citizenry that pays attention and that cares vehemently about “liberty and justice for all” can make sure that our collective experiment in democracy eventually succeeds. While I celebrate today, I will also remember the folks who still, today, in 2022, do not have the same rights that I do. I will remember the rights I had a couple of weeks ago that I no longer have. I will think about the folks who are worried about their own liberty today and every day for so many reasons.

Patriotism should be complicated. Blind loyalty to a flag or a leader or a government without question or accountability is dangerous. And it certainly isn’t what the Founders wanted.

Happy Independence Day.

For further reading and/or listening today:

• “What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass
• “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes
• The Declaration of Independence
• Native Americans and the 4th of July
• A video just for fun