Happy Birthday!

In preparation for the celebration of our nation's birthday, my wife and I have been

watching some documentaries about the early days of our nation’s birth.

I am still mulling over some early impressions from these stories.

There have always been political divisions as we struggled to shape this democracy.

The earliest of days saw conflict over whether or not we should be independent of the

British Crown. As we moved toward independence and away from Great Britain, our

leaders reflected on what they thought were the best and the worst of the European

governments, while leaning into the thinkers, poets and philosophers of the

Enlightenment. In our struggle to cast off tyranny, independence and representation

became critical themes. Nevertheless, in the hard work of forming a government,

tensions arose over the role of the government in the daily affairs of its citizens. From

some of its earliest beginnings these tensions resulted in two political parties that were

divided over whether power belonged to a centralized government or belonged to

independent states. George Washington was the only president elected without these

conflicts being embodied in two political parties – the Federalist and Democratic

Republicans. The struggle was real, and necessary, as they tried to envision a

governance structure that didn’t look like monarchy while addressing the pragmatic

challenges of forming a “more perfect union”.

I often fret over how divisive our political system and political engagement seem to be

today and wish for some idyllic days of statesmanship, civil debate and compromise.

Yet, from the very beginning, determining the appropriate role of government, power

and leadership have been fraught with incivility, partisanship and raucous disagreement

over how to sustain and enrich this new political and governance reality. We are still at it

today. I am willing to embrace that as a good thing. Debate, honest disagreement, open

exchange of ideas and ideals can protect us from confirmation bias, group bias and

single-mindedness.

In addition to being a nation born out of conflict and debate, we were a nation born out

of men and women of great contradictions and inconsistencies. I have been reminded

how much of what I thought I knew about the early founding fathers in the earliest days

of the formation of this great nation has been a highly curated historical memory. The

curation was according to who was telling the story and to what purpose. The early

founders were amazingly insightful, courageous and creative thinkers, reflecting

intellectual philosophical thought of the Enlightenment. They were also privileged, from

the wealthiest families of the new world, well-educated and fallible. Thomas Jefferson

penned some of the most beautiful words that articulated our aspirations as a new

nation. The founders who helped to edit and refine our early framing documents were

capable of the heights of brilliance and the depths of pettiness. We hear the aspirational

notes of freedom and justice, reminding us of the human rights that we share in

common. And yet, the very creators of these documents were rarely able to fully live out

these ideals in their own personal lives. Most were slaveholders and none of them freed

their slaves even after signing their names to a document that today we would say

applied to all people in this country equally. Only one early president, George

Washington, freed his slaves upon his death through his will. Thomas Jefferson did not.

At his death, his slaves were considered a part of his estate property to be sold off to

pay his debts. That included his beloved Sally Hemmings.

Today, we have some people who want to curate, scrub and otherwise tell incomplete

narratives of our history. They don’t want to memorialize any facts and narratives that

might cause us to think critically of our past. But the role of an honest history and whole-

cloth story telling is not to criticize or demonize our ancestors for their failings or to only

memorialize their greatness. I hope we can look honestly at our heritage and our

forbearers so that we can learn how we are like them and, perhaps, how to be our

better selves in our desire to create a more perfect union.

Happy Birthday Uncle Sam.