AMERICA IN 2004

By Steven Snyder

July 4, 2004.

Hm.

I have tried to make it a habit to write something every July 4th. Looking back at my essay from 2002, I was surprised to find this as the theme:

As I gazed around the park, the scene repeated itself time and time again: Man holding the woman, both staring up at the night sky. Why why why? So this is my theory, and my only noteworthy observation of yesterday: Because the fireworks remind us of our futile little existence.

Disagree? I’m sure you will. I’m not that smart. But I strongly believe in this theory. We see these monstrous explosions, bombastic sounds and we are put in our place in the universe. We are nothing but small, meaningless creatures who hope to make it to seventy or eighty years of age (if we’re lucky), and the spectacle and grandeur of these exploding fireworks makes us feel…small.

And in being dwarfed by such an event, we feel compelled to share the humbling moment with the person who matters to us most. We want to cuddle up with that special someone, stare into the sky together, realizing that we might not be that important, but in our little spheres of existence, this relationship is the most important thing we’ve got.

It was an essay written at a dark time in America – less than a year after 9/11, as we came to terms with the fact that the United States was not as revered, feared or impervious as we once imagined.

Today, in 2004, that apathy and that isolation have started to round the bend towards proactive revolt. I am sensing it everywhere I look, and I’m sure you are too: People horrified by the course this country has taken since the terrorist attacks some three years ago, disturbed by a President who has transformed into a figure we could have never envisioned, and a world where America, in many ways, is more hated than ever.

I have changed a lot since then. So has America. I’m no longer that cuddle bunny, awestruck by fireworks. And America can no longer afford to be the isolationist bastion of blind patriotism that it was then.

Last week saw the release of Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and how can this year’s July Fourth be discussed without first acknowledging, yet again, the deep rifts evident in our society. We are a people divided and it will not be getting better any time soon.

Rather than being the unified country of the powerless, as is apparent in that piece I wrote two years ago, we are now divided, yet empowered. Those passionate about President Bush decry people like Michael Moore, and demand that we rally around a President in a time of crisis. Others, like me, start to see the flaws in Bush’s planning for Iraq, his increasing invasion on personal rights in the name of fighting “terror,” and the culture of fear that has been sustained as we continue to live in a perpetual state of paranoia.

Both groups wanting to lash out, Moore’s film simply lit the fuse to the bomb that was waiting to explode. We now argue and dismiss each other, polarized to such a degree that civility is in short supply.

So it is on this July 4 that I continue to marvel over the strength of our constitution and reflect on the progressive country America continues to be. We are able to exist in an environment of disagreement, and we welcome the debates spurred by Moore’s film. In other countries, the government would silence opposition, dissidents would be killed and opinions would be quietly whispered among small groups at night, not broadcast on television or projected on movie screens for all to see.

America is amazing because we can agree to disagree, and even more so because we are encouraged to disagree. Back in 2002, I was not asking many questions because they seemed irrelevant. Today, our country is embroiled in the one of the greatest debates in its history, and that is a good, proactive, patriotic thing.

However, for one day in July we should set aside these arguments and these challenges and celebrate what America continues to be.

No, I don’t think I am making a simple-minded plead for patriotism. July 4 is the one day that we CAN agree on, the one day that reminds us all of the most important thing we have in common. In America, we stand for freedom and peace, and even if our leaders don’t seem to endorse that philosophy, we still live in a land that lets us call them to task.

God bless America. We need it now more than ever.

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