I wrote this after having to work yesterday.
Happy Fourth of July.
Welcome to the recounting of two hundred and fifty years of our great nation.
Two hundred and fifty years of one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.
Wait.
No.
Because we didn't have that at first.
We were never meant to kneel at the feet of a ruler. We were never meant to pledge our allegiance to anything before one another—to ourselves, our families, our friends, our neighbors.
Living, breathing, warm-blooded human beings.
I have, and I will never again, pledge my allegiance to a piece of cloth. A man-made, flammable fabric, dyed with chemicals, stitched in a factory somewhere across the world. A flag is a symbol. It is not the people.
The original Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy and first published in The Youth's Companion on September 8, 1892—more than a century after the founding of the Republic.
For nearly a hundred years after George Washington's death, Americans were never instructed to pledge themselves to a flag.
Even then, the pledge reflected the separation of church and state. The words "under God" were not added until 1954, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the change into law.
In 1942, Congress officially recognized the Pledge in the U.S. Flag Code.
In only twelve years, it went from an official civic ritual to something more.
We were, are, and always will be freer than any government can grant or take away.
Even now, some of the greatest Americans alive are demanding that this nation become better than it is. They ask for reform, not because they hate this country, but because they love it enough to refuse complacency.
Even now, our bravest friends, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles put on the boots and helmet, stand at attention, and march toward danger so that the rest of us remain free to speak our minds.
Some of them have died defending freedoms they themselves struggle to fully enjoy.
They deserve better than empty slogans.
All of them.
All of us.
We studied. We fought. We learned. We protested. We rioted. We challenged an empire because it believed it could govern people who had no meaningful representation.
That is the nation we celebrate today.
The British Crown taxed paper, sugar, tea—ordinary necessities.
History remembers the men who answered with boycotts, destruction of property, civil disobedience, assault, an open rebellion.
Today we call them Patriots.
Happy Fourth of July.
You're free from tyranny...
Never mind.
You're free from exploitation...
Never mind.
Where loitering can be a crime.
Where sleeping outside can be a crime.
Where poverty itself is often treated like a crime.
Happy Fourth of July.
You're free to go to work.
Free to pay surge pricing for the ride home.
Free to pay taxes on your drinks.
Free to pay fees for using the card that paid the taxes.
And, if you're lucky—
You're free to complain about it.
Because tomorrow morning, your obligations will still be waiting.
The promise of America has never been that freedom is finished.
The promise is that every generation inherits the responsibility to defend it, question it, and leave it stronger than they found it.
******
Thank you.