【热夏生活随笔】My take on the 4th of July
As a U.S. citizen, I feel obliged to search for the meaning of the U.S. citizenship which is, of course, a historical and historic product of the 4th of July, 1776. Meanwhile, history is a product of collective wisdom and folly (not necessarily in that order). Individual? No individual can make history without interacting with other individuals.
Collectively our founding fathers literally signed their own death warrant, otherwise known as the Declaration of Independence, in the face of a global superpower, namely, the British Empire. But that did not deter them from leading their people, after losing 25,000 of them in the revolutionary war, to officially launch the U.S. Constitution on March 4, 1789.
Under this Constitution, a unique American regime was designed to defeat aspiring dictators with a deliberate system of check-and-balance. Patriotism is skepticism, meaning that people are united not behind their political leaders. Instead, people are united behind their political belief that politicians tend to corrupt if given too much power. People are also united to make life more difficult for the power that be. Washington, D.C., was and still is a swamp, politically speaking. That was and still is the public perception.
Complain all you want about how inefficient the U.S. government is, but our unique system works. Imagine today's world without the United States of America.
Author: renqiulan