This Monday, millions of Americans will gather in backyards, ballparks, churches and parade routes all across the country to celebrate the 235th birthday of the United States. For many of us, the Fourth acts as just another excuse to jet-stream unholy amounts of ethanol into our systems as we butcher another Lee Greenwood song and blow shit up. And why shouldn't we? It's American.
But for some, the holiday serves as a bittersweet reminder of a country "that once was." For them, the songs of glory and the tales of patriots gone before serve as a guidepost showing the distance traveled from that great day in 1776 to the cold and dark forest of uncertainty where we now aimlessly wander.
Make no mistake, it has been difficult to be an American these past few years. Men and women now go home to their families with less money and more concerns than they did years before. The house that holds them, a structure built on the visions of Jefferson and Lincoln, now shakes violently from the winds of ideological division. Enemies cheer as our light, which for decades has shone forth as a beacon of hope for millions across the world, flickers. For us, they argue, tomorrow will not come.
But we know better. Our pocketbooks may be lighter than before, our steps may not have as great of a bounce they once did and our bellies may be bigger than others would like, but we still have the knowledge, the ability and the desire to make our country great. We have it in our power, as Thomas Paine once said and President Reagan once reminded us, to begin the world over again. This Fourth of July, take the time to remember the things that have built our country into that shining city upon the hill. It's a light that no firework can out-dazzle.
