Under the baobab: America’s birthday offers time to celebrate, reflect
“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” —John Adams to his wife on celebrating Independence Day
Happy 247th birthday, America. We pause to remember those who risked their lives and treasure to manifest freedom and democracy, as the primary principle of our country. It has not always been our country. At the time of its founding the framers did not believe most of the people, including my ancestors, could be full citizens or even human. Only free, property owning, white, men could vote in the American “democracy.” While their constricted convictions stood on shaky moral grounds their struggles for independence laid the cornerstone for a belief system that permitted the ascension of the dignity and freedom for all.
It is that struggle that we now celebrate, a hallowed day, made more sacred by the passage of history. Both Adams and his fellow President Thomas Jefferson died within hours of each other on July 4, 50 years after the initiation of the “Great Anniversary Festival.” Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the two most important Union Victories of the Civil War, were both resolved on July 4, 1863.
Throughout history, not all have agreed with Adams about the sanctity of the day. In 1852, Statesmen and abolitionist leader, Frederick Douglass wrote:
“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”
Our country has progressed since Douglass’ denunciations. It took the bloodiest war in American history to eradicate slavery. The right to vote for African Americans was fully extended in 1965 by the Voting Rights Act, yet is under assault by recent state and Supreme Court decisions. The universal franchise for women was guaranteed by the 19th Amendment in 1920. But women’s right to control their physical well-being has been abrogated by the same Supreme Court 100 years later. The right to vote was extended to 18-year-olds by the 26th Amendment in 1971. Yet young people’s lives are senselessly threatened and snuffed out by gun violence. We have come a long way, sisters and brothers, but we still have a ways to go.
This year, our Happy Valley community attempted to solemnize the Fourth of July with “pomp and parade.” A parade in downtown State College kicked off our local holiday celebrations for the first time since 2019. There was also a 4K race, a celebratory community cake, and the largest fireworks show in Pennsylvania. Celesta Powell, executive director of Central PA 4th Fest, said it was one of the best attended ever. Earlier in the week the Ironman 70.3 Pennsylvania Happy Valley attracted 2,000 two participants and thousands of spectators. Sips and Sounds Downtown sponsored by Happy Valley Adventure Bureau attracted over 1,000 block partiers to Allen Street. Douglass is not with us to witness but his great-, great-, great-grandchildren are.