Mostly because the one-third of
colonists who fought to shrug off the shackles of tyranny that
bound the colonies to Britain managed to get France to come into the
war against the British. Thus the colonies became free to spread out
across the continent and steal land from its rightful owners.
If they had lost, July 4th
would be the North American equivalent of Guy Fawkes Day, which
celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up parliament.
Which only goes to show that a successful revolutionary is a patriot
and a successful guerilla is a freedom fighter and not a terrorist.
Of course, by the convoluted course of
history, this new nation actually did become a beacon of freedom—originally for white men of property, later for
the huddled masses yearning to breathe free and more recently for
educated persons of color.
The bloodiest war in American history
was the Civil War, which was fought to prevent Northern industrial values from
undermining Southern slave culture and was eventually won by those who wished
to preserve the Union at any cost. Further blood was shed to conquer
Mexican territory, ethnically cleanse any land of value of pesky
Native Americans, free Cuba and the Philippines from corrupt Catholic
Spanish rule and replace it by Protestant American rule, indirect or
direct. And to save Asian nations from governments inimical to U.S.
Foreign policy.
Fittingly, we celebrate the Declaration
of American Independence with fireworks, concerts, parades and
outdoor barbeques, clam bakes and picnics. As well as by shopping for
discounts. What could better express the intentions of our
Founding Fathers who opposed paying taxes and tariffs to support the
preservation and expansion of the British Empire in North America?
The irony is that most of us alive in
America today have good reason to cheer the Declaration of
Independence and the county which grew by stumbling steps from that
beginning. We live in a prosperous nation which allowed immigrants
and their descendants to flourish with a minimum of tyranny and an unprecedented abundance of individual liberty and economic opportunity.
Chances are that few of my family would
be alive today if the United States hadn't provided our ancestors
with shelter from Europe's virulent antisemitism. Likewise it
provided hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants with shelter from
famine, oppression and poverty, to say nothing of those fleeing
persecution, revolution, violence and poverty from every corner of
the earth.
So our hearts do swell with pride and
gratitude toward those bewigged, Anglophone gentlemen who
proclaimed our independence 234 long, bloody years ago.
That this country became the greatest military and
financial power on the globe may or may not be a good thing. That it
granted so many displaced and despised and simply ambitious people a
home where they could enjoy the blessings of freedom, education and
prosperity is a nearly miraculous achievement in which we can glory.
