The Fourth of July weekend is upon us, so I am compelled to be contrary once again. There are very few things that annoy me more than people who insist that we live in "the land of the free because of the brave."
I simply do not believe that Americans have the freedom we do because of soldiers. We have the place of imperial power in the world that we do because of our military might, but that has very little to do with the freedoms that we as individual citizens enjoy.
So here is my contrarian advice for the holiday: If you enjoy your freedom, thank a teacher. Thank a civil rights attorney. Thank the ACLU. Thank the government bureaucrats that others love to despise who spend thankless hours making things more fair than they would be otherwise. Thank a librarian. Thank an artist who's spent their career waking people up to the true threats to freedom. Thank a journalist. Thank the recent immigrants who come here believing our schtick and remind us who we're supposed to be. Thank the union organizers who work to keep us free from corporate tyranny.
Did I leave anyone out? Please let us know in the comments.
Happy In(ter)dependance Day!
1 comment:
Amen!!
And thanks to you, prophetic pastor, for reminding me where to focus my gratitude.
P.S. I celebrated US In(ter)dependence by gathering with some Canucks and Kiwis and learning the New Zealand national anthem after singing "The Star Spangled Banner" and "O Canada" and oddly "Deutschlandlied" (odd in that we had no Germans present) while toasting freedom and justice with the Ouzo brought back from Greece.
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