being frank

Independence Day is right around the corner, and the vast majority of you have been busy marinating all kinds of meats, baking endless side dishes, and preparing a wide variety of picnic salads, fruit salads, and a plethora of red, white, and blue themed desserts that are dressed to impress. Add in the business of setting out decorations, sending out last-minute invitations, and pulling together awesome patriotic-infused music playlists that’ll be playing all day long until the evening’s festivities when the majority of you will visit your local park where the fireworks will no doubt marvel the senses and make you feel awesome.

So before you get lost in the fervor of this holiday, I wanted to suggest a small thought exercise that will take you out of the fourth – literally. It’ll give you an opportunity to go forth and think about a few things that may have fallen out of favor, out of the collective consciousness, or simply out of fashion.

For example, think of the generational nature of our country. The Constitution addresses this in its opening paragraph; I’ve highlighted it for you:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

See, the framers of the Constitution recognized that the freedoms we were about to be granted through that document would have to be secured for ourselves and our descendants. So for the past 20 to 30 generations since 1776, those people – our ancestors, their friends, and their neighbors – were tasked to safeguard and secure those “blessings of liberty” all the way up to our grandparents and our parents.

Do you remember when they came forth and passed these responsibilities on to you?

The Declaration of Independence addressed the issue of unalienable rights which were to be passed on by members of the government; a government that was entrusted to people within the country like you and me who would be governed by their peers. That full statement says:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

“deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” This sentence helps us understand how important these unalienable rights were to the Founding Fathers. It was a concept based on an idea that had been around for millennia; one that Jefferson borrowed from the writings of the English philosopher John Locke who outlined the concepts of natural rights and the social contract. So it made perfect sense back then (as it should today) that people of good faith (aka ethical and honest people) should be placed in charge of their government from generation to generation.

Do you remember when your grandparents or parents came forth and reminded you of your civic responsibility to be an ethical and honest person?

There’s a very prescient section in the Declaration of Independence that tells us why this is so important – so critical for the survival of a nation. Most of us remember (and some can even recite from memory) the first part:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

As I wrote in a previous article, John Locke was keenly aware of the instability of human nature. He therefore believed that a limited government would be the best (and most prudent) way to secure the rights of its citizenry. So when the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, those insights regarding human nature were addressed in order to explain the reasons behind such a new and radical idea:

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Jefferson called for people to be prudent in their decisions; that any changes to such a complex institution should not be carried out for “light and transient causes”. And even though human nature has taught us that we are usually willing to put up with a certain degree of injustice and malfeasance, it cannot be allowed when “a long train of abuses and usurpations” reveal a plan to undermine or even abolish those unalienable rights that we’re getting ready to celebrate this weekend. Jefferson was keen to remind us of our rights; that without vigilance, courage and convictions based on righteousness and morality, it all comes crumbling down.

 

Final Thoughts

I wanted to share those examples using that play on words to encourage you to go forth this weekend and remember those friends, neighbors and relatives who in the past carried the responsibility of safeguarding our freedoms and our way of life before that duty was passed on to us. Each generation has an obligation to ensure that we uphold that responsibility. You don’t have to run for office or even serve in the military. All it takes is making the most of the tools at your disposal, such as voting or serving the community in which you live. In today’s world, kindness, empathy and honesty comprise the bulwark that helps us to keep the shadows of doubt from hiding the light of reason. All it takes is a willingness to remain vigilant.

There was a time in this country when unification was the glue that bound us together as a nation. Where our united States were nothing more than geographically zoned areas mostly known for their weather, food, expansive vistas or gleaming cities; for their hospitality, quirkiness, and for their people. Each of them offered a tapestry of sacred traditions infused with pioneering bravado built upon the customs and ceremonies each brought from their native country to be added to the innovative heart of America. And even though ideological differences between parties or factions have always been at the crossroads of our journey as a nation, we understood them to be part of our foundation as a country. That like a bird, we could not expect to remain aloft by focusing on either a left wing or a right wing. Unity requires both in order to cultivate our differences in harmony for the sake of ensuring that we maintain the nation of choice formed in our Constitution:

A more perfect union that established justice, ensured domestic tranquility, provided for the common defense, prompted the general welfare of its people, and secured the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our future generations.

Will you go forth and celebrate this in your own special way this weekend and beyond for the sake of your family, friends and neighbors? It’ll be the most powerful and unique way to ensure that our children get to celebrate the tricentennial anniversary of these United States of America.