That isn’t a birthday cake, America: it’s a brushfire.
I mean, really: put 242 candles on anything and light them up. The smoke alarm will signal an evacuation order, and the party will be over before you scoop the ice cream and pass out the forks. It’s pretty much official: the Declaration of Independence was approved by 13 colonies on July 4, 1776… and history would declare that as the birthday for the USA. Wednesday marks 242 years…
Here’s a factoid: most efforts that require human connection don’t survive long. Oft-quoted statistics are usually rooted in generalized facts: 80% of new businesses fail in the first five years. In marriages, the divorce rate in America is currently 53% and the average duration of those failed unions is seven years. Over 90% of organizations expire before their founders die. The life expectancy for entities created by people (except other people) is, most typically, pretty short…
Invent a new tech product, and expect competition to best your baby in short order. Start a company, and work on your IPO plans as soon as your initial funding allowed you to incorporate. Unless your marriage is solidly faith-based, have a pre-nup on your wedding plan to-do list. If you want all of your best efforts to make something happen to last… get some friends together and birth a nation. That’s the exception to the “use-by date” conundrum: countries can last…
The USA is showing its age. Fourth of July celebrations used to be apolitical unifiers: when the hot dogs and flags come out, the differences are left on the opinion page and everyone would rise to sing the National Anthem. Today, there are more buses going to protests than to parties. Barbecues will be the setting to roast politicians instead of grilling ribs. Membership in the NRA is going up: for some, the “R” is for rifles; for others, the “R” is for rhetoric; both are being used – today – with a shoot-to-kill precision.
Most Boomers have some foggy remembrance of America’s Bicentennial celebrations. It was 1976 – in the last millennium – and it was a unifying experience. America – and, Americans – came together to mark the milestone of the Grand Experiment: the first country that was formed “by the people, for the people” and based on democracy and liberty, to give the power to the people as the rulers of the government, instead the historic norm where a government rules the people.
Don’t look for any residual of that bicentennial blessing today; it’s gone. Much of what was accepted as reasonable in ’76 is now contested, somewhere. The line – from the Pledge of Allegiance – that raises hackles in ’18: “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all…”
The number of opt-outs from “the Pledge” is spiking; the voices in unison expressing that sentiment is shrinking. Aspirations to divide individual states based on ideological differences have become ballot initiatives; conversations about particular states exiting the Union are now recurring as differences spike and debates turn ugly. One nation? Not so much these days…
Then, “…under God.” The rejection of the historic role of faith in the foundations of America is now a widespread tenant of most university faculties, and the rise of functional agnosticism is the product of modern culture’s impact on the impressionable next generation.
“One nation?” Unity is in steep decline. “Under God?” Divine reality is now dismissed. "Indivisible?" Political polarization has fractured families, friends and faith communities. The absence of “liberty and justice for all” now incites public protests and uncontrolled mayhem.
Happy birthday, America. Maybe it’s time to pray…
Bob Shank