Happy Fourth of July

When I was a kid, the world was black and white. There were good guys and bad guys. Whether you were talking about the playground or the entire world, you could divide things up in terms of white hats and black hats.

And when it came to the world, America was one of the good guys. There were things we stood for, and things we stood against. There were things we did, and things we didn’t do. And while America was certainly not infallible, it was always clear we were in the business of doing good.

I found myself musing about those days after reading Mark Hyman’s Fourth of July oration in which he quoted Navy Admiral Arleigh Burke who said many years ago that the most important role of America in the world was as a moral leader.

That’s certainly how I felt about America when I was a child. That was how my parents taught me to feel: whatever mistakes or misjudgments we might make as a nation, America was devoted to some basic principles of decency that separated us from “the bad guys.”

Today, though, this line of separation has blurred.

I used to think that Americans didn’t attack and occupy countries that hadn’t attacked them. That was something only the bad guys did. But now I know we do it, too.

I used to think that Americans told the truth and didn’t lie to the rest of the world to excuse military adventuring. That was something only the bad guys did. But now I know we do it too.


I used to think that Americans didn’t condone torture. That was something only bad guys did. But now I know we do it too.

I used to think Americans would never wantonly kill innocent men, women, and children. That was something only bad guys did. But now I know we do it too.

I used to think Americans didn’t throw people in jail without giving them a chance to defend themselves in court. That was something only bad guys did. But now I know we do it too.

I used to think that in America, we didn’t spy on people who had done anything wrong. That was something that only the bad guys did. But now I know we do it too.

I used to think that in America, our leaders didn’t pawn off responsibility for their mistakes on others. That was something leaders of bad countries did. But now I know our leaders do it too.

I used to think that in America, no leader could excuse himself from following the law and make his own. That was something only leaders of bad countries did. But now I know our leader does it too.

I used to think that in America, we didn’t think people who disagreed with us were “traitors” or “enemies.” That was something that only happened in countries run by the bad guys. But now I see it happening here too.


Sure, I was naïve as a child. At some time or another in our 230 year history, most of these things have been done in our name. But have we, as a nation, ever so completely desecrated our claim to moral leadership as we have in the last several years?

But, then I realize that what makes America great, what gives it claim to moral leadership, is the fact that it is the only nation ever founded on a philosophical ideal. And it’s that ideal that we offer the world. It’s that ideal we celebrate on the Fourth of July.

Yes, many hateful things have been done in America’s name, things that I couldn’t have contemplated my nation being complicit in even a few years ago. But those are hateful things done by hateful people, not by America itself.

America is bigger than George W. Bush. It’s vaster than Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. It dwarfs Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle combined. Add up the Mark Hymans, Bill O’Reillys, Rush Limbaughs, and Ann Coulters of the world, multiply them by a billion, and you still don’t have a speck of what America truly is.

Doubtless, many of these individuals and their disciples would equate my catalog of moral sins as evidence that I hate America. But that’s only because they have a weird and stunted view of America, one that equates the nation with its leaders and their policies (at least when those leaders are the ones they voted for).

But that’s as un-American an idea as one can have. Only in monarchies or dictatorships are the state and its head one and the same. Henry VIII used to sign his official letters “England.” Can one imagine George Washington signing a piece of presidential correspondence “America?”

No, America is bigger than any one person, or any group. It’s even bigger than all of us put together. It’s all of us and our collective dream of the future. It’s our hopes. It’s our ideals. It’s what calls us to be better than we are now, not what we invoke to justify our past actions.

I think that’s the America the Founding Fathers had in mind in 1776. It’s certainly what I have in mind on Independence Day.

Happy Fourth of July.

And that’s The Counterpoint.