In a couple of days my fellow citizens and I will celebrate our Independence Day. We will spend our day grilling and eating, then blowing things up in the evening. Across the country almost all of us will celebrate our independence the same way everyone else does.
I believe the time has come for us to declare our independence once again. There must be more independent ways we can celebrate our independence.
We are creative about showing our gratitude on Thanksgiving. We develop new family traditions for Easter and Christmas. Can we really not find more independent ways to spend Independence Day?
Part of our challenge is we see Independence Day as something that happened a long time ago. We believe it is a holiday about all the people on our money who have statues somewhere. We tend not to think it is our responsibility, today, to be good examples of independence.
Our national holiday is not just another day to take off work, even during the summer. It is not really about parades, or fireworks, or grilling hot dogs.
It might help us if we celebrated Independence Day the way they did.
Our national holiday is dedicated to declaring our independence. They spent months discussing and negotiating, compromising and working our their differences. The result of all their work was a clear, compelling statement of where they stood and what they stood for.
We live in a time when we are fond of asserting our independence. We do not, though, do a very persuasive job of declaring it very clearly.
Why is your independence important to you? Why should it be important to the rest of us?
When will you celebrate your independence this week?
How will you state your declaration of where you stand?
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