The Fourth of July, 2016

Every religion has its sacred texts, its myths, and its high holidays and the American secular civic religion is no different. Our sacred texts are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural, a few others. Our myths are the stories made up by Parson Weems and others. George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and could not tell a lie, threw a dollar across the Potomac, and was the father of our country. The Pilgrims fled religious oppression in England and had a feast with the Indians which we celebrate as Thanksgiving. Andrew Jackson was Old Hickory. Abe Lincoln was a railsplitter. Ben Franklin was a wise and clever guy. If you’re of a certain age you know them.

And the Fourth of July is our high holiday. We celebrate it with fireworks, picnics, barbecues, ball games, and, it used to be, speeches by politicians. Here in Sauganash we celebrate it with our annual Sauganash parade, of which I’ll be posting pictures later in the day.

Writing at Daily Beast, Todd G. Buchholz laments:

Human beings still like to tell and to hear stories. Even our august institutions revolve around instructive tales. What is the Supreme Court but robed elders telling and retelling stories of conflict within our society? Cynical veterans of congressional campaigns speak of campaign “narratives.” Aristotle defined homo sapiens as a “featherless biped.” I’d add that we are a featherless biped who tells stories. Other living things communicate, of course. Bees buzz directions. Dogs bark warnings. But humans have figured out how to begin with a backstory, build to a climax, and end with a denouement.

Since America’s birth, schoolteachers have transmitted its values through folklore and American heroes. I recall childhood afternoons running home from elementary school waving hats and banners cut with scissors from multicolored paper and assembled with that thick white paste that so many kids liked to snack on. What holidays did we celebrate with decorations and stories? Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Washington’s Birthday, Valentine’s Day, and Memorial Day (and, of course, the last day of school).

and

It is important that a revival in national spirit encompass immigrants, too. A new Polish immigrant, for example, should be able to call George Washington his forefather with just as much conviction as the oldest WASP family in Virginia. A Thanksgiving turkey should look just as tasty whether surrounded by plates of kielbasa, steaming bowls of teriyaki beef, or black beans and rice. Immigrants who have braved the seas and the bureaucrats may carry in their DNA an even greater spark for daring and grit. It is a disservice to them if we do not insist that they join in our national story, as if they had been here for a very long time. That’s why I would insist that anyone applying for citizenship or a green card have their passports stamped at no fewer than five historical landmarks and museums. And I would require any student applying for a government loan to do the same. How can you expect immigrants or young people to admire the country if they think it was born yesterday?

I think that more people should take driving trips across the United States, avoiding the interstates and taking the back roads. You cannot know the United States from visiting New York and Disneyland just as you cannot understand the United States without visiting them.

In recent decades a sort of cottage industry has grown up around demythologizing the American past. It’s an error. It is the myths that unite us and without them we’re just a collection of competing interests.