American Distraction 6/2/2024

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

This past week we had Memorial Day here in the United States.  We also will be celebrating our Independence Day before too long. It is also an election year, and we will be choosing a new President this November. We have a good bit going on in the old Republic these days.   Lots of interesting ideas about patriotism, politics and the general welfare of our country are being spread around, mostly in the form of blazing ignorance and guttural shouts. And that is a safe description as I feel certain that both sides will feel that is an appropriate description of the other.  In broaching the topic, I thought I might, hopefully very carefully, look at the three aforementioned American events and see what can be gleaned from their fields.  If I play my cards right, perhaps we can all read this, no matter where your opinions fall and at best nod in agreement and at worst, which I will wholeheartedly accept as sufficient, shrug and immediately forget what you’ve read.  It might even apply to more than just Americans, and if I can pull that off well, a broken clock is right twice a day am I right?

We will start with the first and most somber of the three. Memorial Day is set aside for us to specifically honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.  I must say that I look at this day and probably take it for granted.  Personally, I cannot fathom the willingness to lay down my life for my country. In pondering that statement, I am disappointed in myself. I love where I live. I would not want to live anywhere else. Visit, possibly long term, yes, but not live anywhere else.  I suppose if it came down to where the rubber meets the road, I like to think that I would be devoted enough to the principle of my nation that I would be willing to defend it to the death, but that is very much a scenario that is difficult to judge unless it is at hand.  I am immensely, though probably not in sufficient amounts, thankful to those who have been and are still willing to sacrifice their very lives for this country.  Knowing that there were, are and will be those people is a massive comfort and sobering realization.  I have to do my part, however insignificant it may seem, to try to make sure this is a country worth dying for. I know that seems like a heavy weight to put upon my own shoulders but really every citizen should take it up. And if we all carried it together, our nation, as a cause, then we could easily bare the weight.  I try to remind myself often that I have a job to do as a citizen and that is to do all I can to make this country reflect the light that I want other nations to see.

The next purely American occasion on its way would be Independence Day.  It seems to me that we tend to have an easier time getting caught up in all the good of the country on this day than most any other day.  Most of us tend to be able to set aside differences and if nothing else, revel in the joy of summer festivities and fireworks.  We are a people that do love a good explosion. Some, like me, are in it for the color and pattern, others just love loud noises and things blowing to smithereens.  I suppose things like this are to mimic the bombs of warfare which, if you think about it, is really a strange thing to do to celebrate, but then again, I suppose explosions that don’t inherently imply invasion and/or bodily harm are a lighthearted way of remembering such things.  While most folks can seem to get on board with celebrating the 4^th of July, I wonder how much we really think on it.  We shoot fireworks, cook on grills and go swimming. I wish we could wrap our head around the fact that centuries ago a rag tag group of colonists who were standing up for what they thought was right took on the greatest military power in the world and won.  It’s almost hard to believe that it happened if I’m honest.  But it did and here we are only a few hundred years later and look how far we’ve come. We have quite the story to tell of how a few colonists became a superpower of their own.

And then we come to elections.  I know we fought wars so we could have them and all but man, they are not pleasant.  If it were just a matter of two sides disagreeing and one side was going to have to be disappointed by their candidate losing, then I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad.  But it seems to me that since America has to do everything bigger, we do the conflict of elections the same way.  While it should be a national effort for people to choose the best leader, it’s a bit more of a circus if I’m honest.  I don’t want some dictatorship where I can’t choose my leader but the craziness surrounding the process these days is obnoxious.  It seems the loudest voices on both sides tend to lean a tad closer to crazy than you’d prefer.  It seems like it shouldn’t be that complicated to see which candidate has the policies that you feel would be best for the country but apparently it is.  Sadly, I think we have fallen so deeply into the fiasco that is our election that we might have lost sight of the actual goal.  We’re so busy attacking or praising the candidates that we may have forgotten that the direction of our country should be our focus. 

Actually, come election time when our country is so on display for the world to see, it might not hurt for us to consider the first two holidays.  It couldn’t hurt to remember those who sacrificed their lives or risked it all to build this nation.  Maybe if we consider all that they did, the values that they fought for we could just maybe regain some focus. I know it’s a lot to ask of an entire population of a very large country but the bombardment these days is not the stuff of fireworks, it’s just vitriol.  If we could have the mindset of a young man storming the beaches of Normandy or a colonist hiding in the forest to sneak attack the redcoats, imagine how things might change.  That is a mindset with focus. Those are cases of action inspired by principle.  That would be a great approach to choosing a leader, and not to be a negative Nelly but, we certainly can’t act much worse.