Positive thought this 4th: the 4th celebrates the very beginning of a fight for freedom with the statement in the Declaration of what is worth fighting for. It's not a celebration of a particular government or outcome necessarily. And in that sense, it's always hopeful because every year we can commit again to that beginning and those ideals. And those ideals were and remain truly radical, so of course they are contested, of course it's an ongoing fight. The evidence of how important it is to assert that everyone is equal and has inalienable rights--and the horror of allowing the alternate pov to rule-- is everywhere before our eyes.
*Of course* the fight continues. It's for something that can never fully be won--not as long as the human heart is imperfect, prone to error and cruelty--but it's also something that can never fully be lost as long as people want more than what Langston Hughes called "the same old stupid plan / Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak."
Every year, we can remember everyone who chose to believe that equality is possible, that the "same old stupid plan" must be fought with all we have, and dedicate ourselves to living that every day, to carrying our quiet part in the battle to create what Lincoln called a "new birth of freedom."
All the values worth fighting for can never truly and permanently be won. But any value worth fighting for can never truly be lost either. It is beyond the limits of power, it lives in the mystery of the human heart. Its power haunts and terrorizes tyrants because they know it is a spark that can never truly be quenched.
