Two short videos have sat on my phone for about a year now, both of which I pull up from time to time to watch. Without fail, these videos bring a tingling to the back of my eyes and a mist threatens to rise across them.
What are these video clips that bring tears to my eyes? They’re simple recordings of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” caught at an afternoon concert at a lakeside pavilion on July 4.
The tears come for several reasons. They come first because I am a hopeless patriot and lover of Americana. Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays, and even when the bands are only those composed of community musicians and the singers only those from the local neighborhood, hearing the music and ruminating on the words of these American classics reminds me of the great privilege it is to live in this country.
But the tears are also rather poignant, as I wonder how long I will be able to enjoy such celebrations. Indeed, the fact that these two videos show an audience composed mostly of individuals in their retirement years leads me to question whether those in my generation and younger will still commemorate America’s birthday once the older generation is gone.
“Why make a fuss over Independence Day?” you might ask. Isn’t doing so overly sentimental, a false form of honor to a deeply flawed country?
One could certainly frame it in that light; indeed, many of us may not even feel like celebrating the Fourth of July nowadays because doing so brings us face-to-face with the reality of what we’ve lost in recent years. But did you know that one of our country’s founders faced similar discouragements and challenges even before the Declaration of Independence was signed, sealed, and delivered?
Adams seems to view the Declaration as something that should have happened months before. Had so much time not been lost, helpful alliances could have been formed and precious advances could have been made into Canadian territories, Adams hints.
The biggest disappointment in the march to the Declaration, however, was the smallpox epidemic that hit the American army. “This fatal Pestilence compleated our Destruction,” Adams writes. “It is a Frown of Providence upon Us, which We ought to lay to heart.”
I can’t help but notice the parallels with our own time. We, too, experienced our own modern “pestilence” (the COVID-19 pandemic), an event that made many of us realize just how precious are the liberties we’ve enjoyed in America over the years. Indeed, those of us who want to see America advance and succeed, claiming ground for truth, beauty, and goodness, are continually discouraged as our efforts are thwarted by those whose only goal seems to be advancing evil.
It’s easy to look at these setbacks and throw up our hands. “Why do we even try?” we ask ourselves. “It’s no use fighting for truth and righteousness because evil keeps winning. It’s no good to remember the past victories and hopes and dreams our founders had—those are dead and gone forever.”
But when we’re tempted to take this tack, we should also remember the change of tone that Adams had after recounting the difficulties and setbacks in the months leading up to the Declaration of Independence. He looked for the bright side, recognizing that the bad things that happened to the colonists were only the “frowning providence,” which was actually “hiding a smiling face,” to paraphrase William Cowper’s words in the poem, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.”
Adams said:
“But on the other Hand, the Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it.—The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished.—Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act.—This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.”
The same can be said for our nation today. Turmoil and contention have been the name of the game the last few years, so much so that it’s become difficult to even rejoice in the festivities of July Fourth. But is that same turmoil causing us and our fellow countrymen to think and remember and act in positive ways, just as time and circumstances gradually made the colonists of old realize that they needed to act, even if it meant sacrificing their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor?
I think there’s a good chance that such is the case.
So, as we head into another Fourth of July holiday, let’s not meet it with doom and gloom. Instead, let’s commemorate it in the way that Adams suggested, treating it “as the Day of Deliverance,” remembered with “solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty” along with “Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations.”
In other words, turn on some patriotic music, roast some hot dogs, and grab some friends with whom to reflect on the great things that have happened in the history of our nation. Oh, and while you’re at it, say a little prayer that God would give us the strength and courage to press through the difficulties without giving up so that we, like the colonists, can see the many good things that come out of dire situations.
