A Legacy Of Liberty

I remember as a kid on the 4th of July – I was maybe 7 or 8 years old – putting red, white and blue crepe paper through the spokes of my bike tires and attaching a playing card to the back wheel somehow through the spokes, that produced a rattling sound. Then I rode it in the parade in the small town I grew up in. I think that was my first brush with nationalism, hopefully not jingoism or extreme patriotism: My country is the greatest country on the face of the earth! But I do sometimes think about all the wonderful things that have happened in America just in my lifetime.

When I was 9, the Beatles came to America. At the time, I didn’t think that was such a big deal. But my older sisters sure did. Now I look back on it and think – Wow! – the Beatles didn’t just help make rock and roll amazingly popular in America, they also helped make Eastern thought and religion amazing popular in America.

When I was 9 and 10 years old, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed. (Of course, I wasn’t aware of it at the time.) One, ended discrimination based on race; the other, gave all people of color the right to vote. Think about that for a moment. In my lifetime, blacks and other minorities got the right to vote and they could no longer be discriminated against.

When I was 14, man first walked on the moon. Wow! How cool was that? (Plus we got Tang out of the deal.)

Of course, also in my lifetime, the Vietnam War happened, President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, President Nixon resigned in disgrace. And many other awful things took place. It’s not always easy to remember the bad with the good. Reality is sometimes hard. Or as they say: Reality Bites, if we force ourselves to look at it.

Do some of us get a little too sentimental on holidays like the 4th of July? Do we look at America through rose-colored or red, white and blue colored glasses? Do we, if only for a day, feel like those old Vietnam-era bumper stickers? America: Love it or leave it.

Yakof Smirnoff is a Russian comedian. He became popular in America in the 80s. I saw an old video of his act from back then. He said, “I like it here in America, because here you have freedom of speech. You can go even to [President] Reagan and you can say, ‘I don’t like Reagan.’ We can do the same thing in Russia. We can go to [President] Brezhnev and we can say, ‘I don’t like Reagan.’” Yakov Smirnoff had a catch phrase that concluded many of his jokes. He would point out something silly about the United States, then he would say, “America – what a country!” America is quite a country, although it might not be as good as some people would like to believe.

Jesus tells his disciples, “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.'” I don’t think Jesus was talking about himself. I used to think that Jesus was saying: I, Jesus, have come from heaven and now I have come near you, so the kingdom of heaven has come near. I don’t think that anymore. I think what Jesus was saying was: Heaven is all around us; we just have to see it. Now I imagine there are those who think America is heaven on earth, but that might be going a little too far. In America, we have poverty in the midst of plenty. In America, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In America, we can always seem to find money to pay for war, but we can’t always seem to find money to pay for extending unemployment benefits. And of course America has an imperfect past too. 150 years ago we had slavery in this country.

In his first inaugural address in 1861, Abraham Lincoln appealed to, “…the better angels of our nature.” Those better angels did not prevail and Civil War broke out, primarily over slavery. The North eventually won, of course, the slaves were freed, but not before hundreds of thousands of Americans on both sides died.

In his second inaugural address four years later, President Lincoln concluded, “With malice toward none; with charity for all.” America did not achieve that goal then – with malice toward none; with charity for all – and we didn’t reach it a hundred years later either.

In 1961, President Kennedy concluded his one, and unfortunately only, inaugural address with these words, “…let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking [God’s] blessing and [God’s] help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.” I always like those words. They could be the benediction every Sunday in every church in America: “…let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking [God’s] blessing and [God’s] help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.”

Is America doing God’s work? Is America living up to its fullest potential? Is America living up to its ideals of freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, freedom of speech? In many ways I think the answer to those questions is yes, and I base that on personal experiences.

The other day a handful of us were marching for peace downtown, as we do every week. We stopped at a corner and held up our peace signs and people honked their horns at us in support. Now that might have something to do with the fact that our signs say, “Honk For Peace.” Well, a police car drove up and the sergeant told us that some people who live above a store nearby didn’t like the noise and could we stop. I asked if it would be okay if we moved a block away. He said, yeah that would be great. So we did. Sure, we had to move a block away, but the point is we march for peace every week in America. And the government doesn’t arrest us! And the government doesn’t shoot us! And the government doesn’t kidnap us! And we don’t have to get a permit to march! Our permit is the First Amendment! We have freedom of speech!

Every Sunday we meet here, to gather together and express our beliefs. (Or our non-beliefs.) And we can do that however we want. We don’t have to be a Christian church. We can be a Buddhist temple. We can be a Muslim mosque. Heck, we can even be an…Interfaith Congregation. (Oh my.) The point is the government doesn’t tell us how to worship! (America is not – yet – a theocracy.) We have freedom of religion! And we have freedom from religion! Can I get an Amen?!

Every now and then some of us write columns or letters to the newspaper. And in those columns or letters we can write whatever we want. We can attack or defend the administration. We can speak in favor of or in opposition to some religious policy. Heck we can even come out in support of gay rights. (Oh my.) Granted the newspaper might not always run what we write, but the point is the government doesn’t dictate what we can or can’t say. We have freedom of the press! (Or at least the newspaper does.)

Every Friday I do a local radio show called “Faith and Reason.” I can say on that show pretty much anything I want, as long as somehow it touches on religion. And since I believe everything touches on religion, I’m free to say just about anything I want, as long as I don’t swear. The point is the government doesn’t dictate what I can or can’t say! (Except for not swearing.) I have freedom of speech! (And, of course, people have the freedom to turn off the radio if they don’t like what I say.)

In 1963, in his “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington DC, Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, “Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.” Does it do that? Does freedom ring everywhere in America on this Independence Day, 2010?

Our country has a legacy of liberty to pass on to future generations. Will it? Will freedom of speech prevail? Will freedom of religion prevail? Will freedom from religion prevail? Will our country continue to see educating all children as essential for a democracy? Will our country continue to strive to provide for the general welfare? Will our country respect the freedoms of people in other countries, including the freedom not to be taken over by an imperial power? Each one of us has a legacy of liberty to pass on to future generations. What will that legacy of liberty be? Will that legacy include the liberty to think for yourself? Will that legacy include the liberty to believe what you want to believe, without fear or favor? Will that legacy include the liberty to speak out for what is right and fair and just? Will that legacy include the liberty to act for equal rights for everyone, for justice for more than just us and for peace for our country and for the world? Some questions to ponder as I gladly say to you this morning: Happy 4th of July!