Independence Day

How independent do you feel on this Independence Day 2008? It depends, right?

If your independence somehow depends on packing up the kids and hitting the open highway in your thirsty SUV for a long holiday weekend, maybe not so much. Or if you are looking at the retirement investments in your 401K, your declaration of independence from the work-a-day world may seem like it is slipping farther and farther into the future. Or if you are getting older or chronically sicker, dependence seems like the overwhelming reality that blocks all the many paths of possibility that used to stretch out before you in your youth.

While rugged individualism was a hallmark of our country at its founding, those celebrated signatories of that great Declaration to King George III dared to throw off the oppressive tyranny of a world power, understanding that the independence of the American colonies was completely dependent on the ability of its citizens to cohere — politically, economically, and militarily. The independent concerns of the 13 states and their citizens were put aside to meet the harsh requirements of revolution. Hang together, or hang separately, as Benjamin Franklin put it. By pulling together to meet the larger challenge, the first Americans were securing for themselves, and all Americans to follow, the possibility of resolving the lesser challenges of their individual lives with the incomparable advantage of liberty and freedom.

We are still here as a nation reflecting on these things at the beginning of each July. The world has changed in the past 232 years. Nations call themselves independent, but the bonds of economic interdependence attach conditions and require compromises of that separateness. In our cultural and political life, we fixate on competition and neglect common purpose, align with winners, ridicule losers, and otherwise dwell on divisions precisely when a little unity would do a world of good. In the meantime, our energy resources have become expensive and rare, our investments are riding a rollercoaster… straight down, and we’re just hoping no one gets sick. Our pursuit of happiness seems so daunting at times like these.

It helps to consider, however, how much harder our challenges would be if those American revolutionaries had not hung together long enough to win for us the ultimate prize of liberty and freedom. That alone should be enough to inspire us to put that prize to better use — not just for ourselves, but for our country.