Today is July 4th, and all over the country people are celebrating. Many gather with family and friends for picnics and other outings. Others visit cemeteries to remember loved ones. Some are overseas fighting a war. And all of us are watching the presidential campaigning unfold.
All too often we take our country and the privileges we enjoy for granted. July 4th is a good day to remember, as best we can, what it took to launch this new country - and along with it, a new form of government. I was recently privileged to go to an exhibit about “Creating the United States” at the Library of Congress. Nothing I have studied or seen before made the challenges the founding fathers faced more real to me. Those founding fathers had big dreams, and along with them the courage and commitment to do their part in making those dreams come true. The outcome wasn’t perfect, but it was very good.
Since those early days some improvements have been made, most notably in regard to extending the vote to women, and civil rights guarantees, but who we are as a nation will always be in process and never a finished product. With the Institute, we, in our own way, are following in the footsteps of those who have gone before: dreaming about how this wonderful country and system of government can be even better than it is now….and having the courage and commitment to do the hard work of making those dreams come true - of helping us all participate more in our lives in community, and also be more civil to one another in the process.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the 4th of July. Happy Birthday, U.S.A.!
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This entry was posted by Cassandra on Friday, July 4th, 2008, at 11:32 pm, and was filed in Civility.
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