As luck would have it, I was born in the United States, the most prosperous nation in history, where I am free to openly criticize my government, my leaders and my fellow citizens without fear. That freedom alone is worth celebrating on the Fourth of July.
Yet much of what surrounds us has become so commonplace that we barely notice it. We fly across oceans in aluminum tubes and carry devices in our pockets that provide access to more information than entire libraries once held. We communicate instantly with people on the other side of the world using technology that would have amazed even the engineers who sent astronauts to the moon. We enjoy clean running water, abundant food, reliable electricity, modern medicine, and comforts that kings and queens of previous centuries could scarcely imagine.
Most of us rarely worry about where our next meal will come from, and we live longer, healthier lives than generations before us. What once would have been considered miracles are now part of everyday life.
Of course, America has its flaws. But on Independence Day, it seems worthwhile to step back and recognize just how fortunate we are, not only for the freedoms we enjoy, but also for the extraordinary prosperity and opportunity that so many of us take for granted.
Countless stalwart Americans have sacrificed their lives to protect what we have in this remarkable country. Their courage secured the freedoms and opportunities we enjoy today.
I couldn’t be more grateful for that. Happy 250th birthday, America.
— Scott T. Thompson, Bloomington, Indiana
Faith leaders, show US grace
Last Sunday, just days before America’s 250th birthday, faith leaders in an op-ed (“What America owes the Fourth of July”) addressed the many ills our city and apparently our nation face. It is true there are many. However, to state that our country does not reconcile with its history and that it was founded on genocide and built by enslaved people seems particularly graceless coming from people of faith.
There is no doubt that our country like every other has much to be ashamed of with respect to its history. However, it also has much to be proud of, and I daresay America has more to be proud of than most.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was one of the most celebrated speakers and educated men of his time. He was heralded by Abraham Lincoln and welcomed in the free North as an orator and learned man. He was married to a white woman. He worked with suffragists to attempt to procure the right to vote for women. He was truly an American to be proud of.
The faith leaders say our country is attempting to whitewash our history. I say with respect that this is not true. We have wonderful libraries, museums and schools that do a marvelous job of teaching us all aspects of our history — shameful and good. While it is true that our nation enslaved African Americans, we also fought the Civil War to end slavery. Many white Americans lost their lives in that war to end slavery.
Our country like any individual is complicated. It is neither evil and genocidal nor a perfect shining light upon a hill. However, I do think we strive toward the latter and reach nearer to it and always have than the former.
The faith leaders should look inward. They are wonderful at giving grace to those in our city who have committed crimes against others, and rightly so. They provide forgiveness and compassion to their flock and understand that many people who commit evil acts are not inherently evil. I daresay, on the birthday of someone imprisoned for a crime he or she committed, they would find it particularly important to minister to that person and acknowledge the beauty of their life and not the worst of it.
Possibly they should do the same for our country, at least now for this brief period, as most of us look to celebrate what is good about America.
— Clare Connor, Chicago
Our nation has weathered a lot
Happy 250th, America, and might I add you don’t look a day over 200. Although you’ve been through a lot over the years, including the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, Prohibition, domestic terrorism, COVID-19 and Jan. 6, you’ve somehow persevered and even prospered.
While the future remains shrouded in partisan divide and no real sense of direction, there’s always hope that many of our best days still lie ahead.
— Bob Ory, Elgin
Origins of ‘Star-Spangled Banner’
While watching the World Cup match between Belgium and New Zealand, I noticed that virtually every team member and coach of both teams were enthusiastically singing, with obvious joy and pride, their respective national anthems. Fans of both countries were shown displaying the same.
Kathleen Melia in her letter (“Sanctity of national anthem,” June 27) urges that performers avoid overly artistic expressions and embellishments, that they should sing the music in the spirit in which it was written. As a musician and semiretired music educator, I agree that versions of a tune that should last 90 seconds should not expand into six minutes of operatic artistry or jazz-pop improvisatory exposition. But I take issue with this: “that the music is presented the way it was written.”
The United States, since the beginning, boldly thumbed its nose at the aristocracy of King George III using music. How many Americans sing “My country, ’tis of thee,” the opening line of “America,” not knowing it is adapted from “God Save the King,” the national anthem of Great Britain?
Francis Scott Key wrote the poem “The Star-Spangled Banner” but did not write the music. The poem was set to the melody from the song “To Anacreon in Heaven,” the constitutional song for the Anacreontic Society. It was basically a British drinking song, sung after dinner to kick off an evening of drinking and enjoyment.
In fact, at the end of the song, when we sing “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” the original lyrics for the melody were “I’ll instruct you, like me, to entwine, the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s vine.”
In essence, it was our nation informing our former ruler that we had won independence from its tyranny and it can enjoy us taking a slightly bawdy English drinking song as our national anthem.
— Greg Helton, Morton Grove
Little-known American hero
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we can all remember people who helped create the United States of America. One such person may be overlooked. That person is Caesar Rodney, who was born in 1728 and died in 1784. Rodney was essential to events that led to adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the start of the United States’ ongoing journey toward a more perfect union.
Rodney lived in Kent County, Delaware, and was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He had a facial cancer that led him to cover his face with a green veil in public.
In June 1776, the Continental Congress was divided deeply on independence from Great Britain. While away in Delaware, Rodney received word that the Delaware delegates were split on independence. Rodney rode nearly 80 miles through darkness and a violent storm to reach the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Rodney’s arrival resolved the split, allowing Delaware to cast its vote in favor of independence on July 2, 1776, which helped secure adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
On July 4, 1976, while I was playing a drum and my brother a flute and our friend was bearing the Stars and Stripes, we walked along 84th Place in Chicago celebrating the Bicentennial. God willing, this July 4, I will celebrate the 250th anniversary!
— Mark C. Bach, Mundelein
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