The Padre’s Ponderings — As I See It: Independence Day

  Posted on July 1, 2016  by admin  No comments

Monday is Independence Day, a national holiday that hasits origin in our nation’s declaring its independence from England and regarding the American colonies as a new nation. We have associated this day with the securing and protecting of our freedom.  Wars have been fought and much blood shed to ensure it. Typically, people take long weekend vacations or plan backyard parties serving up hamburgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob. My guess is that the majority of folk don’t give much thought to the reason for this observance nor to the overarching construct of freedom from oppression it acclaims.

A popular song I often hear on my car radio says that there’s “no love without freedom; no freedom without love.” Yet we sit in the midst of a politically charged time awaiting an especially significant general election—one that might have huge consequences for so many people—and I wonder where the love is in our boast about our freedom. What I hear and see is venomous, far-reaching, often dishonest rhetoric that has not even a tiny modicum of the understanding of freedom set in the minds of our founding fathers on July 4, 1776 when they signed the Declaration of Independence.

Independence. Does that not seem a strange concept in 2016? Are we not all of us around the globe very much dependent on one another in so many ways? Can we really isolate from one another and hope for survival, let alone for peace? Sadly, the masterminds of evil and acts of terror have allowed us to sink into a culture of fear and deep anger. My hope and prayer is that sanity and goodness and integrity will prevail and that this nation will continue to not only cherish its freedom but to fight for the freedom of those who remain oppressed—many of whom are right within the borders of our own country.

A happy and blessed and relaxing Fourth of July!