4th of July reflections, national pride, 250 years of a great experiment
By Kathryn Ross
I’ve changed, or maybe the world has. For easily the first two thirds of my life whenever I heard the Star-Spangled Banner and saw Old Glory proudly waving, my arms would break out in goosebumps, tears would come to the corners of my eyes and there’d be a little ache in my heart as I thought about all the men and women who have fought and sometimes died to preserve the ideals this country was built on. I couldn’t help it. The goosebumps would just happen. Sometimes it embarrassed me, but mostly not.
I just heard a young voice singing out, “Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming? “
Then I noticed, no go goosebumps. I was even wearing my new Wellsville, NY 250 celebration, short sleeved T-shirt and there’s was a slight breeze, still no goosebumps. Why, I wondered. Does it have anything to do with being ashamed of this country in its current state – deploying an armed force to round up and incarcerate immigrants and unjustly deport them and shooting down those who object.
My great grandparents were immigrants.
Maybe, it’s the blatant desecration of our cherished city on the Potomac, destruction of a rose garden, bulldozing the east wing, greening up the Reflection Pool, gilding statues or another unprovoked and needless war that killed over 100 schoolgirls on its first day?
Could it be that our current leader is giving me goosebumps for fear of what’s going to happen next that has driven away my patriotic goosebumps. Maybe in some way it has something to do with aging and nothing to do with being ashamed of my country as it is today.
By that I mean, I’m not ashamed of my country when it was founded 250 years ago. I’m still very proud of the Spirit of ‘76 which saw men and women of all ages willing to fight for their freedom, put themselves on the line and say, “No we aren’t going to take it anymore to the tyrant ruling us.
With my intellect, I know we are still in the experimental stages of this nation. We are so much younger than the Chinese Dynasty, Great Britain, France, all of Europe, not to mention the Middle East.
In the July issue of the Atlantic magazine Yoni Applebaum, deputy executive editor wrote, “Americans defined their nation in this way, by their commitment to a common creed of equality, rights and opportunities and in a corresponding set of democratic ideals that they were modeling for the world. In practice they generally fall short of those principles, sometimes seeming to pursue their abnegation (rejection) more than their fulfillment, but the white men who built their fledgling Republic around an ideal instead of around a common ancestry opened the possibility that any who subscribe to its creed could become a citizen. Over time other Americans demanded that the nation live up to its ideals and recognize their equality. For more than two centuries our creedal nationalism has been a source of strength binding together Americans of diverse faiths and backgrounds.”
In the history of world, the United States is still a baby or may be a teenager. We have a teenager’s bluster. We know everything and our European parents know nothing. Like a gangly high school freshman or shy schoolgirl we are kowtowing to a blustering bully who does whatever he wants to regardless of laws, restrictions and protocol.
We know how best to deal with these juvenile predators, we’re just too cowardly to do it. It is beyond time to stand up to this would be tyrant and throw off the shackles that have bound us through fear and retribution. In this the 250th year of this country it is time to emulate the courage of our forefathers who believed, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.”
This 4th of July I’m going to remember my pride in this country. I’m going to salute the flag. I’m going to sing the National Anthem, because America is still young and growing and in my heart, I’m still proud to be an American. Here come the goosebumps.
Kathryn Ross is a Wellsville native, lifelong writer and community activist. You can reach her anytime at, kathr_2002@yahoo.com
