Light off the fireworks for Independence Day!

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Date published: 7/3/2008

AS WE APPROACH the Fourth of July holi- day, I've gotten to thinking about how holidays are stripped of their original meaning.

The official name of the holiday we're about to celebrate is Independence Day. I like that name better, and not just because it reminds us of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

I like it better because words have power, and "Independence Day" is a specific, wild, and meaningful term. It makes us think about discontented colonists plotting the violent overthrow of their government.

"Fourth of July," on the other hand, is a generic, domesticated, meaningless term, making us think, if anything, about fireworks, parades, and picnics.

It's a familiar lament, isn't it? As a minister in a church, I've heard, and even joined in, all the complaints over once-meaningful holidays' being robbed of their original significance:

Christmas, which was as little as 60 years ago a simple, quiet, religious holy day, has become a noisy, exhausting marathon of consumerism called "the holidays"; Easter, traditionally a two-tone celebration of resurrection light piercing the darkness of death, has become a pastel-colored, vague celebration of spring.

We've managed to dumb down even our secular holidays: This past Memorial Day--the day set aside to honor America's war dead --did you spend any time thinking about military personnel who gave their lives in service to our nation?

When our holidays are domesticated, the original power of the day fizzles like a dud firecracker.

That's why I like the term "Independence Day." It reminds us that America's Founding Fathers were not just polite reformers, but violent revolutionaries: people who took for granted Jefferson's belief that the "tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Here's something to think about as you watch the fireworks: Because tyrants never willingly give up power, declarations of independence usually result in fireworks--the political pyrotechnics of boycotts, brawls, and uprisings, and often the literal fire-works of muskets, cannons, and bombs.

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Date published: 7/3/2008

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