Happy Independence Day

 


Wishing all of you a Happy Independence Day. America is a unique nation, founded on an idea and principles rather than on blood and land. We have allowed too much to divide us but we also have to understand that our history is not a mythology of perfection and has its own stains and faults. Please consider the words of Christine Emba about complainers. A great nation celebrates dissent and does not silence it. Remember that the soldiers who won the Revolutionary War were not all white; as Bonnie Watson Coleman said today, “an accurate historical record delayed is the truth denied.” And as David Brooks notes, we have lost our ability to tell our story, America’s story, with truth and honesty; “It is unfashionable to say so, but America has the greatest story to tell about itself if we have the maturity to tell it honestly. The Fourth of July weekend seems like a decent time to start.”


Happy Fourth, my friends.

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