Thoughts On the 4th - Celebrating Our True 'Freedom'

I celebrated the 4th of July on the 3rd, along with a thousand or so East County neighbors at the annual fireworks extravaganza at Steele Canyon Golf course in Jamul.

As I marveled at the chemistry, art and skill involved in the fireworks display, I thought about America's first Congressionally authorized July 4th fireworks show that took place on the Commons in Philadelphia in 1777.  What might a traveler from that night think about seeing this country 230 plus years later? What would amuse or astonish or appall?

Certainly many things have changed politically since that 18th century celebration of our country's independence.  We don't have to own property to vote. We don't consider human beings property. Most of us are equal under the law (now, all of us in New York) and all are fully permitted (even if some are not entirely motivated!) to pursue a life of liberty and happiness. I suspect our time traveler might consider some of our citizenry quite brazen and libertine in this pursuit of happiness.  Who knows for sure?... the first citing of "ne'er-do-well" is from 1773!

While our founding fathers gave us a constitutionally protected freedom of religion and freedom from religion, I can't help but surmise that a traveler from the 1770s might be dismayed that, a few of hundred years hence, we are still bickering about what this freedom really means. He (not likely a 'she') could point to our global neighbors and say, "see what happens when you lose or abuse or misunderstand this freedom?!" 

Any traveler from early America would simply have to cheer our Oprah-fied zeal for the 1st Amendment as we fully express ourselves without fear of prosecution or incarceration or intimidation or burning at the stake. (Methinks fear of embarrassing tweets is another story!)  In fact, the countless television and radio channels and seemingly infinite amount of cyberspace dedicated to airing the mundane or the insane as well as the urbane and brainy might just be the most astonishing outcome of hundreds of years of fighting for freedom of speech. Remember, with the rise of the printing press in the mid 1400s came government and church-directed regulation and control of the publishing industry which repressed dissenting and unauthorized or heretical views. 

So while the blowhards and pundits of the 1700s thankfully had unregulated printing presses (Ben Franklin owned The Pennyslvania Gazette, after all), true freedom of speech arises when anyone in the community, not just the educated elite or a government agency, can publish a word or two. (China vs. Google anyone?!) 

Most of us have our favorite amendments. Mine is the 1st. I'm sure no one truly enjoys the 16th. But even a traveler from 1777 would recognize that without an income tax, the government would be hard pressed to pay its bills. And for those wishing to go back to debt free days, keep in mind that Alexander Hamilton had to borrow from the banks in 1790 for the US government to meet its first payroll! Our founding fathers were close to default. I guess you could say that the more things change, the more they stay the same! 

Well, unless you are part of the 25 percent of the population who are kind of, sort of, shall we say 'unclear' as to why we celebrate or really what we are celebrating, then you probably look into the 4th of July nighttime sky and get goosebumps from knowing and believing in your inalienable rights just as our forefathers must have done when they looked upon those first 13 rockets exploding above the Philly commons.

Have a good one.