I wanted to relay a conversation that I heard on NPR about the fourth of July. A caller called in frustrated and irritated and he asked. What is it with our country, why does everything we celebrate and hear about have to be related to the military? Why should we be celebrating yet another military conquest as a nation on the 4th of July (the revolutionary war) when what we need to talk about and stand for as a nation is peace. The guest that day was a die hard American fan, very patriotic, very in love with her country and it's principles. And though I am often skeptical of out right patriotic people she seemed like a sincere one to me. Her response was thus (in my own words).
Our country and it's revolution was not founded on war, but on the thought of a better way. The fourth of July celebrates the signing of a great document that represents a great loss and yet a great gain to the men who signed it. Those men were great land owners, with great privilege in Europe, they were of noble family and yet they believed in an independent country. When they signed the declaration of Independence they may have gained a country but at that time the country barely existed. They lost everything else materially that had connected them to Europe. They stood up for something greater than themselves. Granted we in the USA often stand up for things by going to war. But many of the revolutions we have created at home, personally, nationally, and abroad, were revolutions of thought and technology. The birth of our nation is not founded in war but in revolution of thought and we should all celebrate what it is to be human and able to stand up for what we individually believe in.
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2 comments:
Hey, peacenik buddy.
I share the feeling that npr caller had, to an extent. I hate, hate, hate war. Yet, I feel the greatest respect for war veterans, especially old men at parades. I don't have a clever way of reconciling my love for my country with my hatred of war. I just believe there's a better way of conflict resolution and/or avoidance that is respectful to all--I don't know what it is, just that we haven't figured it out yet. My theory, unproven as of yet, is that if we pour a small portion of the $$$ we use for war into peace research, we could find a way.
I'm not done, but I thought the blogsite would like me to break it up:
My favorite two pieces of literature about the American Revolution are:
1776 (dvd--1976ish,) starring William Daniels: A musical film about the quarrels of the founding fathers in trying to draft and ratify the declaration of independence. This witty film gave me the first sense that there were real, fallable, men behind this process, not just the faces on calendars, and that it might have easily gone the other way. Yes, it 's fictionalized and set to music. If that's not your idea of corny, rollicking fun, then move on.
and
Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara (2003), a fabulous and entirely readable novelization of the struggle from the perspective of Washington and his peers, including at the British and French involved. It is based on historical letters and docs--public facts and statements are track-able to history; internal and private conversations are invented, in keeping with the known info. It's done well and really made me understand that the war was not a slam dunk.
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