We’ve made it to summer at last! This month, I’d like to turn again to a quote from an author who makes frequent appearances in these messages, Mark Twain:
“Many public-school children seem to know only two dates: 1492 and the 4th of July; and as a rule they don’t know what happened on either occasion.”
I can see why public-school children, or anyone, might be a little confused about the meaning of those dates in the context of American history. Columbus did sail to the Western Hemisphere in 1492, but didn’t even come to North America. He wasn’t the first or the last to visit, and he was distinctly different from the colonizers who eventually formed the cultural foundation of our nation. Similarly, July 4th was the date our thirteen original colonies declared their independence in 1776, but the Continental Congress actually declared legal separation on July 2nd of that year, and the war for independence wasn’t really over until 1783. From there, it took another six years to set up governance as we know it today.
What strikes me about both of these dates is that while both are significant milestones, they underlie a process of change and development that are still relevant today. Our nation is built on a five-century tradition of immigration. While there are tragic and long-lasting negative impacts in this history, we can also look back and see that around halfway through, people were bold enough to stand up and say,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
What a statement! I am captivated by the idea that we chose to declare our freedom by first declaring our equality under God, accepting that there are rights that no individual, community, or government should stand in the way of. The acceptance and implementation of this philosophy has been a laborious project for every generation since its inception, but it remains a continuing beacon of what we strive to be.
Mr. Twain might be correct in stating that we tend to not know what happened on the above dates, but I would hope that we all have at least an inuitive understanding of the magnitude of what we’ve inherited. It’s our responsibility to hold on to it and improve on it if we can, for the good of ourselves and future generations.