For it to mean anything at all, the American Revolution must never end.
Even now, as the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of declaring itself a free and independent nation, we Americans still struggle to determine what that world-shaking event meant and means. We still labor to know what our ancestors — actual or spiritual — let loose upon the earth when they declared:
“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. “
When they so spoke, the revolutionary generation probably did not fully understand the gates they were opening, the chains they were unshackling.
And the hopes they were freeing.
They did not see, for example, that the soaring nature of their declaration soon would serve to indict them as well as venerate them. When they sang of truths being self-evident and “the Creator” endowing humanity with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the chance to seek happiness, the song at that time spoke only of men — and men of property at that.
But the Declaration of Independence’s siren-like appeal stirred the souls then and now not just of the wealthy white male haves but many others who yearned for liberation.
If these truths were self-evident and rights were unalienable, why would they apply only to white men who owned land?
Why not all men, regardless of net worth?
Why not all men, regardless of race?
Why not women?
And, while we’re at it, why sexual orientation or gender identification matter when it comes to rights?
Are we to be a free nation or not?
These are simple but not easy questions, because they required and continue to require us to unfetter our minds — to confront old bigotries and contemplate new possibilities.
To see our beloved nation not as an accomplished fact but as a work in progress, a do-it-yourself project that demands advanced and committed citizenship of those who love it.
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country,” Abraham Lincoln once wrote.
Lincoln drafted those words in a time of crisis, during the second year of the Civil War, the greatest trial this nation has endured.
But they speak to all time, because the challenge the Declaration of Independence delivers to Americans of every time is to find a way to make good on our national founding’s exhilarating promise.
That people could be free.
And that they could pursue happiness.
Meeting that promise is hard work. That is why we Americans often have failed to fulfill the promise of our founding, failed to honor both those self-evident truths and unalienable rights.
But the important thing — the inspiring thing — about this nation is that we keep trying.
We keep striving to get it right.
Here’s an example. All across the nation, college journalists with The Statehouse Reporting Project have been exploring the many ways Americans seek to find the meaning of our founding declaration.
The ways we define freedom.
The myriad ways we Americans pursue happiness.
You can see their work at www.TheStatehouseFile.com. (Disclosure: The Statehouse File, which I serve as publisher, is part of The Statehouse Reporting Project.)
These stories are not grand sagas of great men performing supreme tasks on the world stage.
No, these are simple tales of different Americans plumbing the meaning of what it means to be an American on this most American of holidays.
They’re doing their best to disenthrall themselves from the dogmas of the quiet past.
They’re pursuing happiness.
Are they making mistakes along the way and at times falling short of honoring this nation’s highest principles and their best selves?
Doubtless at times they are — because they’re human.
But that’s the beauty of this country.
Every dawn brings with it a new day … and a fresh chance for us to get it right.
To be, again to use Lincoln, “the last best hope of Earth.”
That was the liberating promise that electrified human hearts 250 years ago and, God willing, will do so 250 years from now.
Because the American Revolution never ends.