From a friend:Happy Independence Day.
I love my Country. Not because it is perfect, but because its potential and quest to be more perfect never wanes. We make mistakes, stumble, and fall, yet Americans always believe that problems can be resolved and challenges can be overcome. We may differ, often greatly, on what we ought to do, but given our diversity, this should not surprise us. Winston Churchill reportedly said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, ...after they’ve tried everything else.” Americans are also impatient, prone to expect a solution to any issue within 60 minutes (including commercials). This can drive us to seek simple solutions to complex problems—generating false dilemmas and seemingly intractable conflict: us versus them; right versus wrong; our way or the highway to Hell.
Complex issues require complex solutions—discovered and tested through disagreement, discussion, and compromise—all of which takes time.
This process is the bedrock of the ingenious system of government gifted to us by the Founders. It is a beautiful tapestry of checks and balances against an overweening concentration of power. It deftly accommodates and channels disagreement, precludes precipitous action in a crisis, and operates reasonably well despite a very wide range in the fallibility of the human beings at the controls. Efficiency, a suspect virtue in government, is not its hallmark, yet it has proven, if slow, effective in preventing both a tyranny of the majority as well as a tyranny of the minority. All of this while fostering incredible geographic and economic growth and improvement in the quality of life of its citizens. Amazing.
I am an incurable optimist, especially where the United States of America is concerned. Clearly, these are not easy times for optimism. But, like Martin Luther King, Jr., I believe “...the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” For all its lapses, the long arc of American history has and will continue to trend towards justice for all, however unlikely this may seem in any particular crisis “du jour.”
So today we celebrate this American ideal, the ongoing project to live up to it, and the freedom we have to determine our part of that project.
A very Happy Birthday to the United States of America!
