Independence Day, it seems to me, is a good day to step back from the controversies of the moment and reflect on the larger 242 year history of our nation. There are some great op-eds that attempt to do so in today's newspapers,but I thought I would do my own bit as well.
What is perhaps most remarkable about the United States is how short a time we have been in existence. Two hundred forty two years may seem like a long time, but let's put this in perspective. When my father died at 84, he had lived over one-third of the entire U.S. history. One-third! I am 59, which means that I have lived nearly one-forth of the entire history of the United States. One-fourth! What does this mean? It means that each of us, over our lifetime, have an incredible opportunity to be a big part of our nation's history.
Of course, we celebrate the lives of Americans who made an unusually important impact on U.S. history. While social, economic and technological trends help drive history, there can be little doubt that individuals make a difference as well--for good and for ill. Think of how different American would have been had Lincoln not had the steely resolve to reunite the Union Think as well how history might have been different if Lincoln's successor, President AndrewJohnson, had not been a racist Southerner, but instead a leader who would have put his heart and soul into a true Reconstruction focused on equal rights for the newly freed slaves.
You don't need to one of the celebrated heroes (or villains!) to make a difference in our Nation's history. I have a family tree that has its notables--Benjamin Franklin and Nathaniel Hawthorne among them--but they were only distant cousins. My direct ancestors were quite ordinary people--farmers, seamen, laborers and oil workers--who over the course of several generations moved west to find opportunity. But even these quite ordinary people made a difference. My early Nantucket ancestors helped create the whaling industry (and one of the family names--Starbuck--even appears as a character in Moby Dick). My Quaker ancestors left North Carolina because of slavery and were occasional helpers on the Underground Railroad in Indiana.
My grandfather was a beloved high school coach. Almost all of my ancestors lived in small towns and their mark can still be seen today in the civil institutions that they help create--churches, banks, libraries and schools. And my family's story is likely that of yours as well. Seemingly ordinary people, doing ordinary things, but nonetheless making a difference in the community--and country--in which they lived.
The fact is that the history of our nation is not just about its leaders, but many other Americans who played a vital role as well. The success of the labor movement is as much the result of the fortitude and determination of its ordinary workers than the wisdom of its leaders--perhaps more so. And the Civil Rights Movement was only successful because of the steely resolve, courage and determination of tens of thousands of African-Americans who took on the blows, dogs and water cannons. Indeed, name any of today's great movements and the same is true as well--whether it be the current Resistance to Trump, the Tea Party, LGBT rights activists or Pro-Life and Pro-Choice advocates.
There have been 56 Presidential elections in the United States. My father voted in 17, and I have voted in 10 . Even in this seemingly small way, we both helped determine the arc of our history. We live in a nation that offers the ability to make a difference in even an ordinary life. This can mean politics, but it can also mean much more--the arts, civic life and business. We all have the opportunity to have a life with meaning and we ought to seize that opportunity. That is what we ought to remember on the 4th of July.
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