The United States is in the midst of a terrible economic crisis, the likes of which many would argue we haven’t seen since the great depression.   Unemployment rates are very high and jobs scarce.  Many of my closest friends are unemployed and so many of us suffer from crushing debt brought on by predatory lending practices.  We are still embroiled in two conflicts overseas and extracting our forces from Iraq has proven more challenging than many thought.  And there are any number of issues.

And yet I regularly feel a surge of patriotism I have not felt for quite some time.  On November 4th, 2008, I and a few million other of my fellow Americans went to the polls and elected an African-American to be President of the United States.  Rarely, if ever, in modern history, has a member of a minority population been legitimately elected to lead a nation.  African-Americans were brought to this country as slaves, now an African-American is President.  Whether you voted for Obama or not, the historic nature of the Obama presidency is a reason for pride.

Moreover, Obama calls us toward an America, indeed a world, in which America’s greatness stems less from its strength in arms than from the strength of the ideas on which this nation was founded, a vision of democratic governance and of civil rights for all.  When our founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they wrote

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

Let’s ignore the inconvenient reference to only men.  Masculine pronouns have generally been used to refer the whole and they do in most languages.  This was especially true in 1776.  And while later in history Africans would be defined in fractions of a person, they were treated even worse, little better than chattle.  But that distinction is not made in the words here and the fact that it was the case only makes the election of Obama all the more significant.
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Obama’s rehetoric regularly calls us, as a people, to be a better nation and it makes clear that as a nation we will  be an ally to those who who embody these ideals.

…we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.  On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.  We remain a young nation.  But in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.  The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation:  the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation we understand that greatness is never a given.  It must be earned.  Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less.  It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.  Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

I am not naive and I am not wearing rose colored glasses.  I have already been disappointed by some of the administration’s policies, and know I will be again.  I fully expect it to falter and to diappoint.  And when it does, I will raise my voice in protest.  But this is the real world.  Politics move slowly and their will be trade offs.  But I choose not to focus on that today.  I choose to focus on the promise of America.  Today is the day we celebrate the United States and the American Dream!  Happy Independence Day!