(UNDATED) When I skated past Michael Jackson’s sudden death while millions of other Americans were caught up in a wave of grief and remembrance, I realized that America’s birthday on July 4 had taken on yet another layer of complexity.
Now, in addition to the multitude of other divisions, we are split between those who considered Jackson a great performer and those who found him a minor curiosity.
There are other divisions: Those who still have jobs and those whose jobs vanished. Those trying to sell houses and those staying put. Those who worry about the Southern Baptists’ decline and those who gloat over yesterday’s gloaters. Those who hope the Obama presidency succeeds and those who hope it fails.
The list of divisions goes on and on. I haven’t even mentioned tastes in television shows, food, immigrant status, health, age, race, gender, Internet savvy, Facebook vs. Twitter, or the latest divider: whether you carry a gun to church.
Ours is an extraordinarily diverse and complex nation. Anyone who claims to define a “true American” is just setting themselves up to be bullied.
Yes, we have the one national anthem, but some sing along and some don’t; some feel pride and some feel remorse. Many would prefer something different altogether, perhaps “America the Beautiful” or “God Bless America.”
The Pledge of Allegiance, which is supposed to bind us together, stirs one feeling in the new citizen who recites it in halting English, and another in the angry vigilante who wishes this immigrant weren’t here.
Some consider paying taxes on April 15 a solemn obligation of citizenship, while others scoff at taxes as the province of losers. Some vote in November, while others try to keep their fellow citizens from voting. Some consider military service an honor, while others dismiss it as unnecessary.
Some worry about failing newspapers and the rise of blogs posing as news sources amidst superficial curiosity about health care reform, Iran or North Korea. Others, meanwhile, figure America has survived worse things than an uninformed electorate.
Every now and then, people try to name a singular “idea” of America. Land of the free, for example, or grand experiment in democracy. The proving ground of free-market capitalism, perhaps, or a melting pot for warring ethnicities.
But even then, we must deal with our divisions. As a nation built partly by slaves and marginalized immigrants, we’ve always had a strangely nuanced conception of who deserves to be free. For many, democracy is a system to be manipulated, not a level playing field. Captains of capitalism stress the values of competition and enlightened self-interest, yet some don’t hesitate to demand government bailouts and protections.
Religion in America has been a noble force for justice, a tool for community-building and disaster relief, and healer of countless woes. But it has also been marked by persistent intolerance. Even more, as moralizing preachers and politicians like the hapless governor of South Carolina parade to microphones to confess their sins, religion has acquired the taint of hypocrisy.
So how does such a divided nation celebrate a shared birthday? I suggest we do so freely and gratefully. For our divisions reflect the human condition itself, and a nation serves humanity well when it allows people to be themselves.
If we don’t agree on the meaning or virtue of anything we do, let’s at least agree on the worth of being free to disagree.
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)
