Dear All,<\/p>\n
This year the United States will celebrate its 236th birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 How are you planning to celebrate?\u00c2\u00a0 If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like most people, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably do what you did when it turned 235, or 234.\u00c2\u00a0 Fireworks, barbeque, patriotic music; this is how we celebrate being American.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, why not?\u00c2\u00a0 Why would this year be any different?<\/p>\n
Actually, this year is different.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an election year!\u00c2\u00a0 In years like this, the words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being American\u00e2\u20ac\u009d take on an entirely different meaning.<\/p>\n
The average human life expectancy in the United States is 78 years.\u00c2\u00a0 During many of those years, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t vote.\u00c2\u00a0 So very often, saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m American\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a lot like saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have brown eyes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m left-handed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Being American simply means that you live in America.\u00c2\u00a0 It says little more about you than the color of your hair.<\/p>\n
But in years like this, that changes.\u00c2\u00a0 No longer is being an American a passive thing.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a choice; a philosophy.\u00c2\u00a0 Every few years, we make the decision to take part in one of the noblest experiments in the history of mankind: the experiment to determine if men and women can govern themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 The experiment to choose for ourselves what we can and ought to be, and the experiment to rid ourselves of dictators, kings, and nobles.\u00c2\u00a0 To settle once and for all that no man has to bow; that no gender, race, or religion should lord over our common humanity.<\/p>\n
You see, every election year we choose the person who leads us.\u00c2\u00a0 We choose who represents us, both at home and abroad.\u00c2\u00a0 This process says much about who we are as a nation.\u00c2\u00a0 Think back on your history lessons.\u00c2\u00a0 Think how rare it is to live in a country that can have complete shifts in power, with a transition that occurs peacefully.<\/p>\n
Most of the time, I feel it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to take this fact for granted\u00e2\u20ac\u201dafter all, most of us have never known anything else.\u00c2\u00a0 But this process is at the core of what makes us so unique. \u00c2\u00a0Our leaders are charged with putting the good of the country above their own pursuit of power and amazing things happen when they do so.<\/p>\n
This singular phenomenon is the result of more than just laws.\u00c2\u00a0 It goes beyond even the Constitution.\u00c2\u00a0 Many governments have laid down similar limits on their chief executive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power, to no avail.\u00c2\u00a0 So what ensures that our leaders don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t abuse those rules?\u00c2\u00a0 We do; us; you and I.\u00c2\u00a0 When a massive population of people collectively exercises their rights, there is no power in the world that can stop it.<\/p>\n
So what are these rights?\u00c2\u00a0 Here are a few:<\/p>\n
Our freedom of speech.\u00c2\u00a0 We exercise it every time we talk politics by the water cooler.\u00c2\u00a0 Every time a comedian mocks the most powerful man in the most famous house in the world.
\nOur freedom of the press.\u00c2\u00a0 We all might grumble about the foibles and biases of the media, but remember what Thomas Jefferson said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 At no point is our right to a free press more important than during an election year.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only check we have against unscrupulous politicians.\u00c2\u00a0 Against false facts and half-truths.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our chief source of information, so that we can make informed choices.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our main provider of context, so that the information we acquire is properly weighed and judged.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through newspapers, television, or internet blogs, we never pay more attention to the press than during an election.\u00c2\u00a0 Thus, we will never exercise our right to a free press more than during a year like this one.
\nOur right to assemble.\u00c2\u00a0 Do we appreciate how rare it is for us to be able to gather and discuss the world we live in?\u00c2\u00a0 This probably seems so normal today, but for centuries people have had to meet in dark alleyways to share, commiserate, or even conspire.\u00c2\u00a0 Our ability to organize in support of\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor in opposition to\u00e2\u20ac\u201dany organization, group, or person is uniquely American.<\/p>\n
We exercise this right every time we gather to support one candidate over another, or when we meet in town halls to question our elected representatives.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, implicit in the right to assembly is the right to association\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto affiliate ourselves as we please.\u00c2\u00a0 Joining political parties or other causes exercises our right to freedom of association.<\/p>\n
Now you might be saying to yourself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We always have these rights no matter what year it is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re guaranteed by the Constitution; twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year; in rain, or sleet, or snow; in good times and bad.\u00c2\u00a0 But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s during an election year that the majority of us truly exercise those rights.\u00c2\u00a0 And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s those rights that make America unique.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for those rights that we declared independence in the first place.\u00c2\u00a0 And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when we exercise them that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re truly being American.<\/p>\n
When you think about being American this Independence Day, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think about baseball or apple pie.\u00c2\u00a0 When you get right down to it, America isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about sports or food or music or money.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even about the English language.\u00c2\u00a0 We have those things only because of what America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truly about: the basic rights we guarantee ourselves; that we guarantee for each other.\u00c2\u00a0 The rights that men and women have fought for, and died for.\u00c2\u00a0 The rights that people have sacrificed their lives, fortunes, and reputations to secure.\u00c2\u00a0 So when we truly exercise our rights, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153American\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ceases to be a noun, but an adjective.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Being American\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being someone who values and respects my fellow man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Being American\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means standing up for the self-evident truths that break the bonds of slavery and free us from the shackles of ignorance.<\/p>\n
With all of this in mind, I want to wish you a happy Independence Day.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope you are able to take a few moments to recognize the historic opportunities available to you, especially during an election year.\u00c2\u00a0 This is not your ordinary holiday.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the time we can show we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re American, in word and in deed.<\/p>\n
To you and your family, happy Fourth of July.\u00c2\u00a0 Now go enjoy being American.
\nD<\/p>\n
p.s. RIP Andy Griffith, I loved watching him, Don Knotts and Ronnie Howard growing up and so did my dad, more tomorrow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear All, This year the United States will celebrate its 236th birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 How are you planning to celebrate?\u00c2\u00a0 If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like most people, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably do what you did when it turned 235, or 234.\u00c2\u00a0 Fireworks, barbeque, patriotic music; this … Continue reading