Publication Date: Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Board of Contributors: Brotherhood is freedom's crowning glory
Board of Contributors: Brotherhood is freedom's crowning glory
(July 07, 2004) by Nancy McGaraghan
It is impossible to talk about Independence Day, 2004 without thinking about the war in Iraq.
For some, what is going on in Iraq is a reason to wave the American flag, our symbol of democracy, high for all to see.
For others, the war compromises our right to wave the flag at all.
In either case, the prevailing spirit of Independence Day is one of patriotism.
When I was a kid, long ago and far away, I spent the 4th of July riding my bike around the neighborhood. My job was to watch for police cars. If I spotted any, I was to immediately report it to my older brother and his friends, who were shamelessly shooting off the forbidden firecrackers.
The excitement of this civil disobedience carried the spirit of the day for us kids.
Our firecracker adventures were child's play. Freedom is serious business. Its nature was not decided once and for all in 1776. "Four score and seven years" later the Union itself was challenged. Since then, skirmishes and full-blown battles around the nature of freedom continue to engage, divide and perplex us.
Freedom has a learning curve that is as long as human nature is complex. That we declared our independence from a political oppressor in 1776 is a statement of fact. Freedom, on the other hand, is something we claim and nurture. I want the freedom to care for my family. We want to be able to live where and how we choose, worship in accordance with our individual beliefs, earn a living in the ways we choose, and decide what we will do and where we can go for fun.
Most people want these same things, or some variation. It is the variations that can lead us into the dark woods of our prejudices and the intricacies of freedom.
A woman's right to choose an abortion meets a doctor's right to choose not to perform an abortion. A child's right to be educated meets a school's right to set standards of behavior. A couple's right to legalize their union meets society's right to define which unions can be legally joined.
Toni Morrison was looking as much to the future as to the past in her novel, "Beloved," a beautiful story about the tragedy of slavery. One of the women, Sethe, is a runaway slave. She talks of her deep fear that her children, "her best part," will be taken away from her. She longs "to get to a place where you could love anything you chose -- not to need permission for desire - well now that was freedom." The story is about slavery -- but the freedom to love openly, without shame or fear, is as pressing a need now as ever.
Freedoms clash. And into these skirmishes, comes duty: We each have a responsibility to look beyond the private world of our freedoms and prejudices in order to consider the rights of others.
Abraham Lincoln put it bluntly: "Whenever I see anyone arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."
Seeing a question from all sides is what makes freedom work. We let freedom grow up from independence from England to freedom for all. This is our duty, and not a free-for-all, as some suggest.
Two well-known patriotic songs can serve as bookends for freedom. The National Anthem celebrates the sacrifices of people who fought our first battles, defending what this country meant by freedom and independence. When I hear this song I can taste the sweetness of our hard-won democracy.
The other, America the Beautiful, is an ode to just that -- the beauty of this incredible country. Most of this beauty is pure God-given gift, ours to have and enjoy (not forgetting our duty to preserve the gifts for future generations).
But, one gift, "brotherhood," is not ours for the taking. It is planted in our hearts, and it is ours to give each other. It is the one gift that crowns all of the others. Brotherhood is freedom ringing out for all to hear.
We are situated between these two images: "The bombs bursting in air," and the crowning good of brotherhood.
Can we hold these two opposite poles in their proper balance? This is the task of freedom that has matured past its adolescent years.
Finally, in the words of one longtime journalist-observer of government process and policy: "And why, in the land of the free and the brave can't we shoot off fireworks, anyway?"
Nancy McGaraghan is a member of the Weekly's Board of Contributors. She She can be e-mailed at chezmcg@hotmail.com.
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