It’s Called “Independence Day” — But Thank You For Playing

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

— George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905

(You probably thought that was Winston Churchill, didn’t you?)

My all-time favorite radio station, News-Talk 740 KRMG (Tulsa), like all news-talk stations, television “journalists,” newspaper “journalists,” and magazine “journalists,” has had a lot of news stories, interviews, and commentary about Independence Day.

No, wait — not exactly. Without notable exception, they call it “The 4^th of July,” not “Independence Day.”

I have a problem with this, and I’m convinced that this is not just a petty grievance or officiousness on my part. It’s also not on parallel with the way it annoys me when people call it “Daylight Savings Time,” instead of what it is: “Daylight-Saving Time.” That one makes people look ignorant, but it truly is trivial. Not this:

You hear it all the time: “Have a happy 4^th!”

What is “The 4^th of July” about, anyway? Hotdogs on the grill? Fireworks? Long weekend (if it falls on a Friday or a Monday)? It would seem that way.

You may scoff at my obdurateness but here’s my response: Words Mean Things. It is no trivial matter what we call things. To my mind, this widespread trend indicates that what we’re celebrating is the holiday we remember from last year and the fact that we get another one this year.

Or, are we celebrating the approval by the Continental Congrefs (lol, I just love putting that silly “f” in place of the “s”) of the United States Declaration of Independence?

I’m thinking: Not so much.

Why do I mention Santayana’s quote at the top of this entry? I’m convinced that aside from the fact that the general populace seems to be becoming more and more clueless all the time, there are many, many people who do not appreciate, respect, or perhaps even believe what got this nation going so many years ago (or so few, from the perspective of the history of civilization).

The people I’m specifically talking about are those who do not recognize God, and the undeniable influence he has had on the prosperity of this nation. As we move further and further away fromHim, we jeopardize that very same prosperity.

I’m not going to tell anybody how to live, because God knows (literally) how far off-base I am in my own less-than-stellar example to others. Directly or indirectly, He has taught me humility.

But to snub ones nose at God… bad idea eternally, but also a bad idea here and now.

Who is God, anyway?

Hint: it’s not Krishna, it’s not Vishnu, and it’s not Allah, God of those who treat their own women as chattel and are generally neurotic and murderous.

No, God is Jehovah; Yahweh; the God of the Jews first, and now the God of the Christians. He’s the only non-imaginary God in the universe. (Despite what one of my idiot high school history teachers tried to pump into my skull-full-of-mush, Jehovah and Yahweh are the same.)

What did our forefathers think about God? What are the implications of this for today?

Read every single word I have included here, from the United States Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

(I have omitted the next section, which lists the colonists’ grievances against King George of England, from whom they were declaring their independence.)

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Yeah, you tell me what the founding fathers thought of God. Do you enjoy the freedom and prosperity that this nation fosters? Can you feel, in your gut, the fear these great men must have felt when drafting this document? They shook up the world, with entreaties to God, for the noble purposes of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

So what will you call today? “Independence Day?” I hope so.