This Fourth of July Let’s Start Living Up To Our Name
By Pete Haug
The birth we celebrate today was difficult. The models of governance in place two and a half centuries ago were “conceived in rebellion and retain the characteristics of the revolutions peculiar to an adolescent, albeit necessary, period in the evolution of human society. The very philosophies which…provided the intellectual content of such revolutions…were inspired by protest against the oppressive conditions which revolutions were intended to remedy.”
Yet despite our palpable disunity, we’re still the “United” States of America. Our survival has often been threatened from within and without. Such pains have “an apt analogy” in human development: “How significant is the difference between infancy and childhood, adolescence and adulthood!”
Asserting America’s independence, the Founding Fathers declared, “all men are created equal,” even as they retained their enslaved peoples and deprived women of equality. It took nearly a century until, midway through our Civil War, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed America’s enslaved. More than two years passed before that proclamation was enforced nationwide on June 19, 1865, now observed as the national holiday “Juneteenth.” Fifty-five more years were required to enfranchise women.
Our society has experimented with many things. Slavery didn’t work. Keeping women from voting didn’t work. The 18th Amendment even tried to curtail booze; that really didn’t work.
Legal segregation oppressed those of color until 1964, when the Supreme Court effectively eliminated official school segregation in its “landmark decision,” Brown v. Board of Education. Unofficially, segregation continues, particularly in housing and employment. In many households and other workplaces, women remain second-class citizens. Myriad other injustices and inequities plague a nation struggling to live up to its name, to its ideals. But as victims of prejudice struggle for equal rights, progress is advancing.
And the vision remains, one that has inspired, and continues to inspire those seeking entry. The Statue of Liberty welcomes “your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,… the homeless, tempest-tost…I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Generations of schoolchildren internalize these ideals. They pledge allegiance to “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” They sing “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” They ask God to “shed His grace” on America, to crown its “good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.”
Yet our adolescent democratic republic remains unfinished. Despite its influence on the world stage, it struggles to live up to the potential embodied in its name. A WNYC/Atlantic series titled “The Experiment: Stories from an Unfinished Country,” illuminates “the gap between the ideals of our country and its often messy reality.”
During the last half-century women have controlled their most personal, intimate choices. The overturn of Roe v. Wade was a setback, but old ways of doing things are not likely to return. Medications, contraceptives, information, and transportation, unavailable 50 years ago, empower a formidable women’s support network.
The Supreme Court can overturn its past decisions, as it has many times: “This happens when a different case involving the same constitutional issue as an earlier case is reviewed by the Court and seen in a new light, typically because of changing social and political situations.” We’re just experiencing adolescent growing pains.
Leading all nations spiritually
As we forged our nation, visitors from throughout the world observed and commented on America’s prospects and potential. One was a Persian who, in April, 1912, “had crossed the ocean to speak at the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration.” During his 239-day visit he traversed the continent, giving talks throughout the United States and Canada about America’s democratic principles, such as racial and gender equality, unity, and peace.
He was ‘Abdu’l-Baha, son of Baha’u’llah, who founded the Baha’i Faith. In 1873 Baha’u’llah addressed the “Rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics therein” in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, his most important book. Baha’u’llah exhorted them to “Adorn…the temple of dominion with the ornament of justice.”
‘Abdu’l-Baha promulgated this message throughout his tour. In Cleveland, he told an audience, “The American continent gives signs and evidences of very great advancement; its future is even more promising, for its influence and illumination are far-reaching…it will lead all nations spiritually.”
In Chicago, ‘Abdu’l-Baha shared this prayer with with all Americans. Please feel free to use it:
O God! Let this American democracy become glorious in spiritual degrees even as it has aspired to material degrees, and render this just government victorious. Confirm this revered nation to upraise the standard of the oneness of humanity, to promulgate the Most Great Peace, to become thereby most glorious and praiseworthy among all the nations of the world. O God! This American nation is worthy of Thy favors and is deserving of Thy mercy. Make it precious and near to Thee through Thy bounty and bestowal.
If outsiders can see our potential, why can’t we?
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