Under the baobab: Amid difficult times, there’s still so much to celebrate on July 4th

Happy Fourth of July.

These are difficult times for many of us but let’s not forget to celebrate. We and our ancestors have kept the idea of democracy alive and thriving for a quarter of a millennium. We have had to overthrow monarchy, eradicate slavery, eliminate racial and gender oppression, end unjust wars and stamp out fascism.

Each succeeding generation has created communities composed of strangers who learned how to live with each other under the umbrella of democracy. As a work in progress, sometimes we have succeeded. Often, we have not. Democracy is a verb, not a noun.

There are those who argue that authoritarian autocracy would be more efficient. They forget. This country was not constructed on the decadent principle of the divine right of kings. As children of the enlightenment, the founders believed that society should be structured on a social contract between citizens and leaders. Political power flows up from the people through their elected political representatives not the other way around.

A few years ago, in this column, I tried to express how I felt about the Fourth of July. Unlike Frederick Douglass, a hundred years earlier I was more optimistic. This is an appropriate time to share those thoughts again.

“The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. It is the celebration of our country’s birth. Of course, the United States hasn’t always been OUR country. At the time of its initial creation many people, including some of my ancestors were not recognized as citizens or even people. So, I am not celebrating the beginning, but I do celebrate democracy’s origins which were engendered in the hearts and hopes of the people. We are the people.

I celebrate the courageous struggle of the countless generations of ordinary people who dared to dream of a nation where freedom was the rule and not the exception.

I celebrate the original inhabitants of this land, the indigenous people, who continue to fight to maintain their culture against the onslaught of foreigners.

I celebrate the Africans who struggled for freedom and when given the opportunity built and preserved a better life for their children.

I celebrate those who put their lives and treasure on the line to sustain a Union free of the tyranny of oppression and those GIs who went abroad in later generations to free others from tyranny.

I celebrate my colleagues who stand for an hour each week to bear witness to the fact that our country is still not fully free of war and class conflict.

I celebrate the women who marched and the men who walked with them so that we all could be citizens no matter what gender.

I celebrate the coal miners, farmers, ditch diggers, builders and union organizers who committed their time and sometimes gave their lives, to ensure that workers receive fair wages and be accorded the dignity to enjoy them.

I celebrate the immigrants who flocked to this country, both then and now, seeking ways to make life better for themselves and their children.

I celebrate Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Odetta, Oscar Brown Jr., Willie Dixon, Louis Armstrong, Aaron Copland and other musical artists who inspired us to believe that ‘this land is your land, this land is our land.’

I celebrate the young and the old who work the polls and the streets to make sure that everyone has a vote and that their vote will be counted and mean something.

I celebrate the teachers, social workers, community organizers, clergy, journalists, and all those who commit to building a community where justice is more important than profit and every man, woman and child has fair access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” -Under the Baobab, CDT, July 2009

E pluribus unum.