An Independence Day Dream
Tales from the road
On this Fourth of July, I find myself thinking about some of the roadside attractions I noticed during the recent long trip from Oregon to Oklahoma and back. I was struck by how many prison museums I passed, some located right beside a massive razor-wire enclosed active prison yard. There is a Trail of Tears memorial, marking one of the many, many atrocities of the genocide of indigenous peoples as settlers moved in. In Kansas, I passed the Orphan Train museum, which commemorates the movement in the mid-eighteen hundreds to ship tens of thousands of impoverished children from New York City to the Midwest and beyond. The grinding economic system and lack of social services left parents unable to care for their children and authorities set about shipping the burden elsewhere. It was the beginning of the U.S. foster system.
And, in Ponca City Oklahoma, there are green recreation area signs pointing toward “Oil Baron Mansions”. Yep, you’re reading that correctly. You can literally tour ostentatious castle-like homes created for those whose uber-wealth comes from the most destructive industry on Earth.
The Fourth of July is one of the days when America’s past is most romanticized. The mythical stories of shining beacons and gentle melting pots are not reflected in the museums and memorials bearing witness to violence and oppression that dot our highways and towns.
I have at times been accused of being unpatriotic when I point out the dark truth of our past or the serious flaws in our current culture, institutions, and rapacious, oppressive economic system. I disagree. It is more patriotic to address hard truths so as to become better than to choose blinders of intentional ignorance packaged as patriotism.
Every Fourth of July, my partner John and I read aloud the Declaration of Independence. We do so to remind ourselves of the power in the idea of America even as we acknowledge that we haven’t yet come close to realizing that idea. One important step in moving toward a world in which freedom, justice and self-governance are available to all, is getting honest about how far we are from such a state right now.
On this Independence Day 2023 there is no more hiding our history of genocide, slavery, institutional racism and sexism, and the brutality of the soulless corporatocracy that dictates our government and economic system. There is also no more hiding the fact that that very economic system is destroying natural places and wildlife and destabilizing Earth’s climate. It’s all out in the open now, which gives us a much better chance to change course.
In addition to calling a spade a spade I think it is incredibly important to imagine what could be. After all, everything ever created gets created twice, first in the form of an idea, then out in the world. One of these days I’d love to do a cross-country trip that features memorials to the Trail of Loving Kindness, The Museum of the Restoration of Nature, a national monument to Economic and Ecological Sanity. I’d love to see little recreation signs pointing the way to Neighborhoods of Universal Justice and Opportunity.
I’d also love the Fourth of July to be less about obnoxiousness and blowing stuff up and more about the profound principles reflected in the Declaration of Independence.
Ah, an American girl can dream …..
Cylvia