—July 2022—

How to Be Better Patriots

Independence Day, 2022 has come and gone. Some Americans lived through it happily and safely. Others fled from gunmen or from states where they were denied life-saving medical treatment. Division between and among Americans is exposing us to the very “dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within” that our independence aspired to address. The recently concluded Supreme Court term fostered plenty of discussion about the Constitution, but little about the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence lays out both the rationale for our nation’s independence from England and the justification for our continued vigilance in protecting it. It’s worth our time to attend again to its words:
 

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,

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
 

When a holiday that celebrates our nation’s independence becomes a day of mourning for American civilians killed by other Americans at a Fourth of July Parade, it underscores our nation’s failure to achieve a safe haven for all who reside here. If we are to do better, without further bloodshed and loss of life, we all have to be better patriots. Our love of self, God, and party cannot be divorced from our love of our fellow Americans, our compatriots. 

The late Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor exemplified this kind of patriotism when explaining the 1992 Supreme Court ruling on Planned Parenthood v. Casey, “Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality. But that can’t control our decision. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.” Justice O’Connor distinguished among her responsibilities to herself, her God, her political party, and her country; and as a Supreme Court justice she knew which responsibility came first.
 

Resources & References

Coming Up

"See No Stranger" Book Study with Retreat House
Wednesday, July 20
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. Central

Retreat House, one of our event co-sponsors, is facilitating a See No Stranger book study—available in person and online.

If you attend in person, soup and bread will be served.

More details here.