Things I Believe Strongly Now: I Believe America Is Still Worth Celebrating
There is something about the Fourth of July that should make us pause.
Not just for the fireworks.
Not just for the cookouts, the flags, the lakes, the parades, or the long weekend.
Those things are good. I enjoy them. They are part of the rhythm of summer and part of the way we mark the day.
But if we are not careful, we can celebrate the holiday while missing the miracle behind it.
The Fourth of July is not simply a date on the calendar.
It is a reminder that we live in a country unlike any that came before it.
A country built on an idea that was radical when declared and remains remarkable today.
The idea that rights do not come from government.
That ordinary people are capable of self-government.
That freedom is worth the risk.
That power should be limited.
That the individual has dignity.
That people should be free to speak, worship, build, assemble, dissent, work, own, vote, create, move, question, and pursue a better life.
That idea changed the world.
And I believe America is still worth celebrating.
Not because she is perfect.
Because she is extraordinary.
We Have Lost Perspective
One of the great problems in our country today is not that we see too much.
It is that we see too little.
We see what is wrong, but not always what is rare.
We see flaws, but not always blessings.
We see conflict, but not always freedom.
We see frustration, but not always opportunity.
We see what divides us, but not always what has been handed to us.
We are surrounded by so much good that we can start to treat it as normal.
And once something becomes normal, we stop being amazed by it.
We forget that much of human history was marked by kings, empires, conquest, famine, disease, oppression, rigid class systems, forced labor, religious persecution, and governments that treated ordinary people as subjects rather than citizens.
We forget that in many places and many times, people could not speak freely.
They could not worship freely.
They could not criticize their leaders.
They could not start over.
They could not own property in any meaningful way.
They could not vote.
They could not build a business.
They could not move freely.
They could not dream beyond the station into which they were born.
Then we look around at our lives, filled with rights and choices that would have been unimaginable to much of the world for much of history, and we call it ordinary.
That is a failure of perspective.
Gratitude Is Not Blindness
Some people hear celebration and assume denial.
They think loving your country means ignoring its flaws.
I do not believe that.
Gratitude is not blindness.
Patriotism is not pretending.
To love something honestly is not to deny where it has fallen short. America has had failures. Serious ones. Painful ones. There have been moments when we did not live up to our founding ideals. There have been injustices, contradictions, divisions, and deep wounds.
But here is what matters.
America contains within itself the principles that allow correction.
That is one of the things that makes this country different.
We can criticize our government.
We can challenge laws.
We can expose injustice.
We can argue publicly.
We can organize.
We can vote.
We can appeal to founding principles and say, “We have not lived up to this yet.”
That is not weakness.
That is part of the genius of the American experiment.
The ideals were higher than the people who first declared them.
And ever since, the best of America has been found in the long, difficult work of becoming more faithful to those ideals.
That should not make us cynical.
It should make us grateful.
Because a country that can be corrected by its own highest principles is a rare and powerful thing.
America Is Different
America is not different because Americans are better people than everyone else.
We are not.
We are human like everyone else. We are capable of courage and selfishness, generosity and pride, sacrifice and foolishness, wisdom and error.
America is different because of the framework.
The idea.
The founding conviction that human beings possess rights that government does not grant and therefore should not be allowed to casually take away.
The belief that power should be restrained.
The belief that the government exists to serve the people, not the other way around.
The belief that liberty, though imperfectly practiced, is worth preserving.
The belief that ordinary citizens matter.
The belief that free people can build, fail, speak, worship, disagree, recover, and begin again.
That is not normal in human history.
It is exceptional.
And we should say so without embarrassment.
We Should Choose to See the Good
One of the themes I keep returning to in this series is that what we repeatedly notice shapes what we become.
That applies to America too.
If all we choose to see is what is broken, we will become bitter.
If all we choose to see is conflict, we will become exhausted.
If all we choose to see is corruption, hypocrisy, and failure, we will eventually lose the desire to protect what is still good.
But if we choose to see the full picture, something changes.
We can see the problems and still see the blessing.
We can see the arguments and still see the freedom that allows them.
We can see the disappointment and still see the opportunity.
We can see the division and still see millions of people quietly working, raising families, serving neighbors, building businesses, teaching children, caring for the elderly, coaching teams, volunteering, giving, creating, worshiping, and trying to make life better in their corner of the country.
That America is still real.
It may not always be the loudest version.
It may not dominate the news.
It may not trend online.
But it is real.
And it is worth celebrating.
Participation Is Better Than Complaint
It is easy to complain about the country.
It is easy to complain about leaders, schools, communities, institutions, media, government, culture, and the direction of things.
Some complaints are legitimate.
But complaint alone is not citizenship.
A country like ours requires participation.
Not just voting, though voting matters.
Not just paying taxes, though that is part of shared responsibility.
Participation means choosing to contribute to the health of the places we inhabit.
It means serving locally.
Showing up.
Being honest without being destructive.
Disagreeing without dehumanizing.
Raising children who understand both freedom and responsibility.
Supporting institutions that still matter.
Building businesses that create value.
Helping neighbors.
Volunteering.
Listening.
Speaking truth.
Practicing gratitude.
Refusing to let cynicism become your contribution.
A free country cannot be maintained by spectators.
It requires citizens.
And citizenship is not only a legal status.
It is a posture.
It is the decision to be responsible for some small piece of the common good.
Freedom Requires Responsibility
One of the reasons America is so special is also one of the reasons it is so fragile.
Freedom requires responsibility.
That is true for individuals, families, communities, and nations.
A people cannot remain free if they lose the habits freedom requires.
Self-control.
Honesty.
Courage.
Gratitude.
Respect for the law.
Respect for each other.
Restraint.
Faithfulness.
Humility.
A willingness to lose an argument without trying to destroy the person who won.
A willingness to win an argument without humiliating the person who lost.
A willingness to think beyond ourselves.
Freedom gives us room.
But what we do with that room matters.
If we use freedom only for appetite, resentment, self-expression, and personal gain, we weaken the very thing we claim to value.
If we use freedom to build, serve, worship, create, protect, contribute, and pursue what is good, we strengthen it.
That is why the Fourth of July should not only make us thankful.
It should make us responsible.
The Greatest Country in the History of the World
I know saying America is the greatest country in the history of the world will sound too bold to some people.
Maybe even offensive.
But I believe it.
Not because America is flawless.
Not because every chapter of our history is clean.
Not because every leader has been wise.
Not because every citizen has been virtuous.
I believe it because no nation has done more to advance the idea of human liberty, expand opportunity, attract people from across the world, generate innovation, create prosperity, defend freedom, correct itself through constitutional principles, and give ordinary people the chance to build a life.
People have risked everything to come here.
They still do.
That should tell us something.
For all our problems, people around the world still see America as a place of possibility.
A place where the future is not entirely dictated by the past.
A place where a person can work, build, worship, speak, disagree, recover, and begin again.
That is worth honoring.
That is worth protecting.
That is worth celebrating.
What I Believe Strongly Now
I believe America is still worth celebrating.
I believe we live in the greatest country in the history of the world.
I believe many of us struggle to see it because we lack perspective.
I believe gratitude for America does not require denial of her flaws.
I believe honest patriotism can both celebrate what is good and work to repair what is broken.
I believe this country is different from every nation that came before it because it was built on an idea larger than the people who first declared it.
I believe freedom is a gift, but also a responsibility.
I believe complaint is easy and citizenship is harder.
I believe we should choose to participate in what is good.
Choose to see what is still beautiful.
Choose to celebrate what is rare.
Choose to protect what has been handed to us.
Choose to be worthy of the freedom we inherited.
And I believe this strongly now because life keeps proving it true.
On the Fourth of July, we should enjoy the fireworks.
We should gather with family.
We should raise the flag.
We should be thankful.
But we should also remember.
This country did not have to exist.
This experiment did not have to endure.
This freedom was not guaranteed.
It was declared.
Fought for.
Protected.
Expanded.
Corrected.
Handed down.
And now it is ours to steward.
America is not perfect.
But she is extraordinary.
And I am grateful to call her home.