Light off the fireworks for Independence Day!
AS WE APPROACH the
The official name of the holiday we're about to celebrate is Independence Day.
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
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.
Fireworks are a natural part of declaring independence! That's not only a political truth, but a psychological one as well, as anyone who has raised a teenager, tried to break off a bad relationship, or free himself from an addictive behavior can tell you. Separation, even healthy separation, even healthy independence, does not come easily. Independence is, by its very nature, explosive.
Freedom from control doesn't come from a written document, no matter how grand the intention or how sweeping the John Hancock; it comes with rockets'
Perhaps this is all just another way of saying "freedom isn't free." Freedom--from whatever enslaves us
So let others call it the "Fourth of July," but I invite you to join me, just before biting into your hot dog, in thinking of those who--in 1776 and right on through today--pledge their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" so that we can celebrate our Independence Day.
The Rev. John Ohmer is rector