Tonight I went to the Crawfordsville "Freedom Fest 2010." Christy came, along with Ben and Katie, Annabelle and some of her friends, and a bunch of people from church.
I've been thinking all day about Independence Day, or the idea of "Independence Day." Its an idea so ingrained in our national mythology that its hard to deconstruct. I start by asking the question "who did the Declaration of Independence make independent?" It certainly wasnt the American Indians. They got to enjoy Manifest Destiny for the next 150 years. It certainly wasnt blacks, slave and not. That didnt begin until the Civil Rights movement and hasnt ended yet. Nor women-- 1920. White, unpropertied, males? 183os.
No, the real beneficiaries of the Declaration of Independence were the men who wrote it. A group of elites who wrote it with their own interests at heart and with a narrow view of "all men are created equal."
It could be argued that the Declaration of Independence was the beginning of a trend in, and created an aegis under, which various groups could agitate for freedom. This argument fails when the fledgling United States and England are compared during the same time period. Slavery was in the process of being abolished in England during the Revolutionary War. The US had to fight a civil war to end it 80 years later. Has the rallying cry for the Boston masses "no taxation without representation" ever been realized in the United States?
Now playing: "Drones" Rise Against
None of this is an attempt to disparage the US, but to unpack one of its foundation myths.
Tomorrow is certainly not Independence Day for areas in which the United States is exerting is will. Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, etc. etc. have yet to see the "all men are created equal" clause manifested in the US's actions. But this is a different topic for a different time . . .
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