By Andy Brennan
Flags waving, rockets red glaring, patriotic music playing, beverages for drinking and (responsible) adults fiddling with explosives to entertain the kids. The Fourth of July is a distinctly American holiday when Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs come together to celebrate the founding of our country. As we mark the 247th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, it is worth remembering the hope that inspired it and the many agreements required to maintain it.
A nation is defined by its common narrative, which seeks to bind disparate groups together into a single community. What makes our country so radical is that our narrative is based on ideals of democracy, fundamental liberties and toleration for differences as opposed to religion, ethnicity or race. It is ironic that such a homogeneous group as our Founding Fathers created this narrative, but they hoped that these forces could be overcome to truly create E Pluribus Unum (out of the many, one). However, the pursuit of innovation is always built on hope. We can keep that hope alive if we can relearn to trust each other again.
The most fundamental agreement that must be honored is renouncing the individual use of violence for settling disputes. We agree to settle political disputes through public discourse and free and fair elections. We agree to settle criminal and civil ones through our legal system and the rule of law. For this to work, we have to have faith in our institutions, and if they betray that trust refer back to the previous agreements. If we can’t trust our institutions, then we cease to be a society.
However, the greatest problem is the loss of faith in each other. According to Gallup, both sides of the political divide still share the same political culture embodied in the U.S. Constitution, but we have lost faith in the “other side” to uphold those ideals. Ronald Reagan used the phrase, “trust, but verify” as the basis of relations with the Soviet Union, which seems like a good place to start. We have to trust that the other side is acting in good faith, and when it is verified by our institutions, accept it. This means ignoring the narratives spun by the radicals of the left and reactionaries of the right whose real goal is the destruction of the system itself in pursuit of their own absolutist goals.
Another agreement is what we teach about this in schools. Part of that is instructing students in the values of our social contract based upon democracy with minority rights, individual liberty with personal responsibility and the necessity of engaging in civil discourse with those who express opposing viewpoints. That is our common narrative. Attempts to censor the unflattering facts of our failures to uphold those values, or to downplay the significant achievements in pursuit of those values, only serve to divide us.
We are never going to agree on everything, and enforcing cultural beliefs on others usually ends badly. We need to accept that other people will make different choices, view the world differently and want different outcomes. However, we do need to agree upon what are fundamental values regarding individual liberty versus our duty to each other. A general rule is to let people make their own choices as long as it doesn’t cause an unreasonable danger to others. We have a process for this and we must trust it.
So put aside the battles over ideology for at least a day, toast the enduring hope our country was founded on, and please don’t start any fires.
Andy Brennan is a U.S. government teacher at Santa Rosa High School.
You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.
