Fourth is time to celebrate, strive for independence
By:The Packet Group
Tuesday is Independence Day.
While we enjoy our day off from work, partaking in the barbecues, the picnics, the fireworks, we also should take time to remember what the Fourth is – a celebration of American independence from Great Britain and our Founding Father’s proclamation that all people "are created equal."
This idea sets the tone for the way we think of ourselves in the United States. It is the reason it is a country to which so many immigrants have traveled, creating new lives and new prospects, and adding to the patchwork quilt that is American culture in the process. For 224 years, this simple, yet eleoquent, evocation of principle is what makes citizens across the world envious and provides the oppressed throughout the world with hope.
And yet, it is important we remember that the American ideal is a work in progress, a goal we must work toward so that when we say "all men are created equal" we can show that we mean it.
Over the 224 years of our nation’s existence, average citizens have stood up and demanded change, helping America to meet its ideals:
Slavery was ended and slaves became citizens;
Women won the right to vote;
Legal segregation was halted and separate schools, lunch counters and public accommodations are now illegal;
Minorities and women are guaranteed protection of their civil rights, including the power to vote and the opportunity to work;
Workers have the right to organize and bargain collectively, strengthening their position in dealing with their employers.
But we need to do more.
There remains a great gulf between the rich in America and the poor, a gulf that strains the relationship between the races. It leads to a defacto segregation, with generally more affluent whites living in suburban communities and poorer blacks and Latinos living in slowly decaying cities. This defacto segregation then contributes to a two-tiered educational system, with richer communities paying for better schools and poorer communities forced to take whatever they can get.
Women continue to be paid less than men for the same work. They face discrimination in hiring and harassment in all areas of society. And they generally are forced to work two jobs (i.e., they finish their paid employment and head home to clean the house and take care of the family).
Too often, we have different sets of rules for different sets of people.
As troubling as these difficulties are, however, they are difficulties that can be addressed – provided we’re willing to take the words contained in our founding documents seriously. We have set a standard for ourselves, in the Declaration of Indepence and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights that we must live up to.
As historians like to say, America is just 224 years old; a blip on the radar screen of history. We have been striving to treat all men and women as equal for a far shorter time than it took for the world to get around to acknowleging that equality.
As a nation we need to continue the struggle, to ensure for all our citizens the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and to prove to the world that we really mean that all people "are created equal."