On this Fourth of July

Reflections on patriotism in an age of Trump

It is the Fourth of July. I began my day by hanging my U.S. Flag from my front porch. I purchased this flag back in late August – I explained why in this post – and I flew it with some regularity from the day after I purchased it until the November election. I was so disappointed with the United States for electing a racist liar as our President, that I couldn’t continue to fly it.

I decided I had to fly it again today. I decided I had to reclaim my country’s flag because it is a symbol of unity and freedom and liberty and justice and equality.

This afternoon, I took the time to re-read the Declaration of Independence. It does read like an indictment – of King George III. It lists grievances against him, charges that explain why our founding fathers thought George’s rule of the colonies had become tyrannical.

Among the charges are listings of various ways George was violating the rights of the people living in the colonies. I cannot help but read these charges against George and wonder why similar charges are not being formally leveled against Donald Trump. Donald has already denied due process of law to immigrants and citizens, and he says he wants to continue to do so.

The parallels between the charges against George and Donald don’t end there. The Declaration says, “He [George]has endeavoured to prevent the population [growth] of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither,…” It certainly seems to me that Donald and his minions what to make American white again and are hellbent on driving non-whites out of the country as they keep non-whites from entering the country. Their anti-immigration stand is much more like George’s than it is like our founding fathers’.

There are charges against George for obstructing an independent judiciary: “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.” And we see Donald trying to control the independence of our judiciary.

Our founding fathers objected to George’s use of the military “in times of peace” to intimidate the populace, “Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us” and “protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.” We may not have “large bodies of armed troops among us,” but Immigration and Customs Enforcement is about to become the largest law enforcement agency in the U.S., with a bigger budget than most of the world’s militaries, thanks to the passage by the House of the Senate’s budget reconciliation bill.

These founding fathers had, they believed (and I agree with them), just cause to declare “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved.”

So I am faced with the question of how to celebrate Independence Day this year. And I find myself turning to music.

I find myself listening to Noel Paul Stookey’s rendition of “American, the Beautiful,” with two new verses that challenge us to live up to the values articulated directly and, through the charges against King George, indirectly in the Declaration of Independence.

And I find myself singing Maren Tirabassi’s new lyrics to “My Country ’Tis of Thee.”

And I re-commit myself to the values I learned growing up in Lexington, Massachusetts – that it is our responsibility to stand united for freedom, justice, liberty, and equality, and to celebrate our diversity and the strength it gives us.

I’m flying my U.S. Flag again today to reclaim the symbol. I’m flying it as an act of patriotism that doesn’t pretend that the USA has ever been perfect. Instead, this patriotism embraces the values articulated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the ideals fought for in the American Revolution. I fly it as a symbol of a patriotism that keeps working to make the USA more free, more just, and more equal.