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An examination of the American promise
(Originally shared on my LinkedIn newsletter WordWarrior.)
America is a nation built on rebellion, usurpation, and fierce independence that borders on being incapable of governance. Consider this paragraph from our most revered document, The Declaration of Independence:
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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
A Sad State of Affairs
In the recent presidential debate featuring aged men arguing their golf games and offering little more than gamesmanship and “one-ups-manship” – they seemed to be old fiddlers fiddling while Rome burns – even the usually staunchly entrenched newspapers of America seemed aghast at what they saw from their candidate, whichever candidate that may have been.
January 6, 2021, came up several times during the debate. Some have classified it as an attack on America or some level of a coup attempt. Others have seen it as the result of years of frustration by American citizens who for way too long felt disenfranchised. At any rate, it was a sobering and frightening moment in recent American history. Like the war for independence in the 1770s, one side of the aisle saw it as treason while the other felt it was the natural culmination of reasonable frustration and a desire to be represented, heard, and seen.
The defense of such an uprising might sound like this: Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. (Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence, full paragraph above.)
From the Tea Party movement to Black Lives Matter, Americans have sought to be heard and seen, and have sought their idea of liberty and justice for all. Some take it to extremes. Others quietly protest. Most just stew in their juices, frustrated with what they feel is a hopeless “cause,” because they are only one person and what can one person do?
Some would say America has never been more divided but that is just because they have not studied American history or read the things each side hurled at the other from the beginning of American governance. There were times when animosities were so violent that they ended in deadly duels, such as the one between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Even when the hostilities did not rise to that level, political opponents ripped and tore at one another through speeches, publications, and official newspapers.
Still, the current times seem especially dire when you consider the low level of confidence American citizens have in their institutions. A Gallup poll that included 2023 demonstrated the erosion of our confidence in recent years.
In the “Great Deal” of confidence category for 2023, we find sobering numbers:
Church or Organized Religion – 16%
Military – 32%
Supreme Court – 11%
Banks – 9%
Public Schools – 11%
Newspapers – 6%
Congress – 4%
Television News – 5%
Organized Labor – 12%
Presidency – 10%
Police – 19%
Medical System – 13%
Criminal Justice System – 6%
Big Business – 5%
Small Business 29%
Large Technology – 11%
Higher Education – 17%
Science – 35%
News on the Internet – 7%
Health Maintenance Organizations – 8%
The numbers indicate that people trust the things closest to them, which they can have some investment in or control over, like churches, small businesses, and local police. Trust for the federal political machine is in the toilet, to be kind. Only 4% of the people have a “great deal of trust” in Congress, 10% in the presidency, and 6% in the judicial system. We don’t trust them. The numbers indicate we don’t trust news organizations to tell us the truth about anything, either. Most of them, we see as political hacks, pushing whatever agenda they buy into, or whoever owns them.
I Pledge Allegiance
When I was in elementary school (granted, a private Christian school) in the 1970s, we began each school day reciting the pledge of allegiance to the American flag. Patriotism was so high in the Christian circles where I was raised that it was elevated to a place part and parcel to Christianity itself.
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The term “under God” was added to the pledge in 1954 at the urging of President Eisenhower in response to the “godless” threat of communism. Of course, as has always been the case in America, not everyone was happy about the decision, proving that “indivisible” has never meant undivided.
“indivisible” has never meant undivided.
And now I come to the point of this article.
We may not all agree on everything but we must all agree to support, promote, and empower “liberty and justice for all.” If we do not, then who are we? What kind of monsters have we become?
Liberty and Justice – A Dream & A Goal
We have never quite obtained what we profess. Liberty and justice for all is an elusive dream or a difficult goal, depending on whether you are satisfied to dream about it or determined to make it happen.
The Declaration of Independence declared “all men (today, we would say ‘people’) are created equal” but equality was far from a reality in Colonial America, nor was it the reality when America won her independence. An entire segment of American society did not enjoy the most basic of human rights – individual freedom. It took 85 years and a seven-year, bloody civil war to get the ball of “liberty and justice for all” rolling. Even then, inequality and injustice would spill well into the next century, resulting in civil rights movements and legislation.
On August 28, 1963, Reverend Martin Luther King gave a powerful speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. The speech rang in the halls of American justice and down the corridors of time. In that speech, Dr. King famously said,
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
Truths that may be self-evident are not self-fulfilling. They must be fulfilled by people committed to them.
Justice: the Burden of Liberty
“Liberty and justice for all.” I thought about that statement, so powerful and inspiring. And it hit me: Justice is the burden of liberty. Justice is the responsibility of the free.
Justice is the burden of liberty. Justice is the responsibility of the free.
My mind went back to my days in ministry, back to the Bible, the book on which I have tried to build my life, and to the Apostle Paul’s words to the Galatians:
For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love. ~Galatians 5:13
Liberty must secure justice for all. That is the duty and the calling of the free. Liberty has built-in responsibility because wherever liberty exists, the ability to misuse it exists. You are free to do wrong or right (another word for “just” – “justice”).
On this July 4th, as we enjoy whatever part of the “land of the free and home of the brave” we are privileged to occupy, as we grill our burgers, splash in our pools, ski on our lakes, and watch the fireworks, let’s not forget “the bombs bursting in air”, when the outcome of America’s initial run at freedom was very much in doubt. Let us not forget that our American contract of “liberty and justice for all” is written in red.
Let us not forget the responsibility of liberty is justice…for all.
Happy Independence Day!