Truly Independent, Still (2005)

[As I said yesterday, the "Summer Respite" is still on, irrespective of activity here. In the meantime, I thought I'd reprint last year's Independence Day essay, particularly since little has changed since it was first posted at Contratimes.]

Good morning, and may this be a grand Independence Day for you.

The older I get, and the more informed I become, so much the grander are these patriotic holidays we celebrate. Not that everyone celebrates them, which is too bad. But many of us do.

If I were to make a fine distinction between a conservative and a liberal (both worn out and confusing labels, no doubt); or between a rightist and a leftist, it might be this: that conservatives ultimately believe that there is no REAL, ontological Bill of Rights, but a bill of privileges. Liberals, in contrast, raise rights to the status of idols, or gods, believing that not only are rights entitlements; they are ontological and natural facts. They are not abstractions. They are concrete. And the list of rights is an ever-increasing one.

I am not here to quibble over my distinction. I am not given to it with any sort of conviction. I am only here to ask a question: Which perspective engenders gratitude? Which perspective invokes a spirit of thanksgiving?

I firmly believe that the only healthy-minded perspective is that which sees everything life offers us as a gift, and a tenuous one at that. The gifts of life come in an overstuffed bundle of privileges that can only inspire awe, humility, and, not least, gratefulness. There are no rights; no one can go find a right, or point to one, or put one in their pocket. And no one can demand that LIFE give them what they deserve, or that to which they are entitled. Everything is ultimately privilege.

Of course, I admit that rights have been given me, but the gift of rights itself is NOT a right. That gift is a privilege, a privilege earned throughout history, with conflict and bloodshed, sacrifice and prayer, and intellectual and spiritual agony forming the very foundations of that gift. Yes, I have the RIGHT to speak, or to VOTE, or to DISSENT, but I know in the core of my being that what I call rights are only legally secured privileges. Such rights could disappear in the swiftness of a coup, revolution, occupation, or the deft stroke of a nuclear holocaust on our nation's capital.

Today, then, is another day of thanks. It is a privilege to breathe, to plan, to sit on the deck or dock or verandah or yacht, to ooh and aah at fireworks in the summer's night sky. But it is all the more a privilege to do these things freely, independently, without compulsion. We are free to celebrate today, or not. We are free to choose either bratwurst or burgers; beer or lemonade; ice cream or strawberry shortcake (or both). We are not behind bars; we are not under tyranny; we are not occupied.

Pray that it remains so. Pray to fight against those who would take it away. And pray, too, that Iraq someday will have its own national days of gratitude, without the vestiges of tyranny and compulsion forcing them to comply to the diktats of a few.

And pray that our country, the United States of America, not get so enamored of its gifts that it believes such gifts are entitlements, rights, or something far more idolatrous.

We are independent, and yet, paradoxically, our independence depends on whether we remember how tenuous independence is. If we forget that independence is a gift, we'll quickly find ourselves wishing we hadn't.

July 4, 1776. Remember why. Live free. Today. Tomorrow. Always.

Contratimes

September 11, 2001. Never forget.

©Bill Gnade 2005, 20o6/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.

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