Why We Need the Fourth of July

In an America that is often hard to live in - one that is so violently against logic, ethics, and religion in our own day, having problems upstairs and ignorance downstairs - we Christians tend to think that our country is a lost cause. After all, what is America to us if it loses us Heaven? All the political turmoil that constantly is about throws us into doubt about our beautiful land, making us identify it with the immorality that inhabits it. If there is one thing we need right now, though, it is not resignation to America's doom - we cannot give up on our country.

So many times recently have we seen attempts to deny our history in favor of a whitewashed one - in favor of a new code of law, and of thought and ethics, a modern secular's religion, if you will. Many people disagree with the past, and so try to erase it and pretend that it never existed. Sometimes, I feel the same way. Doesn't everyone wish they could erase their faults of the past? In the all-too often case, however, that I do not agree with the code of law that these aforementioned populaces try to uphold, it is hard to realize why exactly they so wish to alter America's memory.

Today is one mark in our history, however, that no one wishes to erase - or, if they do, have not managed to. Why? We are Americans - let that mean something to us. Occasionally in these troubled times, we become so concerned with justice and help for all those who are not Americans that we forget our own country. Independence Day marks our country's first step as a child - a new country. To disown it is to disown the quality of being an American. But it is not the only mark.

Our country and its culture are so incredibly diverse and many-faceted - bad and good alike, many things make it up. But we cannot deny one in favor of the other. To do so is to deny the truth. As people, are not all of our journeys marked by dark and light, by failure and success? To deny our mistakes and only recognize our triumphs is to make the latter obsolete, for our triumphs are only possible in learning from our mistakes. America is not a perfect country and never has been - it is, in this respect, the same as any other country. It has had good times and bad times. For instance, we once allowed slavery here - there is a low of America. For another example, we abolished slavery - there is an American high. To smooth over the former and only speak of the latter is to make no sense - how could we do good without knowing not to do wrong? We could not have abolished slavery, amending our mistake, if there had not been a mistake to amend in the first place. And did not this amendment of a mistake lead to greater rights for those who had previously been enslaved in years to come?

So much of American culture is increasingly at stake because of this wish to deny our past for the sake of a idealistic future. We need to today remember all of American culture - the Revolution and slavery, Fred Astaire and Golden Age Hollywood, the Civil War and the Old South, Star Wars and Davy Crockett, tarring and feathering and patriotism, the Wild West and Laura Ingalls Wilder, Shirley Temple and the World Wars and all the many, many various things that make up our culture. Good or bad, shameful or empowering, failed or successful, they all are a part of our culture, and they are all a part of the truth. We cannot deny them - they happened, and our duty is to remember our culture, and not let it die, and pray and fight for our country, aiding it to stand on its feet. Today is a very important marker, and it may serve as a reminder of all these things. Do not lie about the past, even in the hope of a greater future - all of these things were and are true. Remember all of them today, for this is the reason that Independence Day exists; we greatly need to be reminded of our past, so as to honor, know, and learn from it. This is the truth that is America - don't let it die.