On Monday night across the neighborhood, people were getting ready for the Fourth of July by shooting off fireworks. It sounded like a U.S. battleship bombarding enemy defensive positions before launching an amphibious assault. From the sounds of things, it appeared that the new fireworks store on College Avenue must have had a successful opening.
As the crack of explosions echoed in the night, there was a realization that at that same time somewhere in America, there were people hearing not the sound of fireworks, but rather the sounds of gunfire. It got me thinking.
While the Fourth of July is an American celebration, it is a reminder of the remaining gap between the ideals set forth in 1776 and the reality of our ongoing American experiment. In some ways, the week leading up to this July 4 highlighted that gap.
The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in against some obvious gerrymandering and took steps to protect the federal election process. At the same time, it eliminated affirmative action and, to some, appeared to backtrack on an LGBT case.
Outside of the court’s official business, times have gotten interesting for the justices. Just over a year ago the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked early. Recently we’ve learned that some justices have reportedly received free lavish trips and had business dealings with people who’ve had cases of interest before the court. Another justice had a spouse involved in trying to overturn the 2020 election. It’s not a good look.
Given that the life expectancy was 36 when the Constitution enshrined lifetime appointments for justices, it may be time to legislate Supreme Court term limits. A lifetime appointment with no real threat of removal can create a sense of omnipotent arrogance with no accountability. But that discussion is for another time.
While the court has legally settled the affirmative action question for now, there remains real work to do to keep advancing opportunity for all in America. I traveled the country for two decades recruiting high schools in four time zones and 26 states. In all those schools, from rural to urban to suburban and from rich districts to poor districts, one fact became clear: equality of educational opportunity still eludes us.
Where you’re born should not be a determination of your destiny. But for some reason, some of our politicians teach their base to view efforts toward equality as a threat to the “real America.”
There was a time when a President Roosevelt taught us, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Now, politicians intentionally instill fear to grasp at power. In the last decade they’ve told us overtly or winked at others who teach fear of Blacks, Muslims, Mexicans and Jews. Now, as the 2024 election cycle ramps up, the hot new threats appearing back on the fear spectrum are LGBT people and drag shows.
No matter who they ask us to hate, the strategy is always to divide and conquer. We’ve even reached a place in time where people openly talk about the coming “civil war.” We should be better than talking about the power of guns as the arbiter of what is right and what is wrong.
It was Lincoln who stated, “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end do our duty as we understand it.” He sought a manifestation of strength in taking the high ground of common cause.
In our times we find those wishing to govern fall into one of two camps.
There are “problem people” who traffic in grievance politics. They find fault and point fingers at anyone other than those in their political sect. They project their own faults on political opponents. These people are a dime a dozen, and they exist only to grab power.
Then there are “solution people” who recognize the problems, but also formulate solutions to solve them. They are aspirational leaders. They have no time for venomous hatred or settling past scores. The problem people often refuse to be part of the solution and hope for failure to power up another cycle of problems.
That is the great dividing line of our politics in this country and the question for all of us. Will we choose to be mired in the mediocrity of “problem people” leaders raging against their imagined threats? Or will we opt to entrust the future to people with aspirations calling for solutions to lift all Americans?
That is the challenge of our times: to find mature people formulating solutions to the real problems paving the pathway forward in a complex world. On that path, each July 4 we can draw ever closer to the ideals that were born in Philadelphia amid the humble and imperfect beginnings of this great nation.
