The Best Way to Celebrate the 4th? Sacrifice for Freedom.

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”        
--President elect John F. Kennedy, 1961

What have we done for the United States of America lately? What have I done as a citizen, as a grateful recipient of our collective human and civic freedom, declared on July 4, 1776, by our forebears? What have you done as a citizen latey?

As I watched the Presidential debates this past week, along with millions of my fellow Americans, I was just waiting for a journalist or candidate to ask or answer that question. But as is usual with these candidate cattle calls, all of the presidential aspirants were falling all over each other to proclaim what they would absolutely, positively do: for me, for you, for anyone, and all, of course, in exchange for a vote. 

Provide health care for all. Cancel all student debt. Reign in drug prices. Grant citizenship to the “dreamers”. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  All noble ideals and hopes. I agree in part or in whole with all of these lofty aspirations. And if asked, the candidate for re-election on the other side of the aisle: he’s also offering similar promises, that while ideologically different, still emphasize government as the giver, the entity that doles out certain things, especially come election time. Tax cuts. Bringing back American jobs and manufacturing. Securing the border.  Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.   

Lost in this electoral rush to always give Americans just what they want, especially in an election year, is one basic truth about life in human community. One virtue absolutely necessary and needed if, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “…government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.” That main ingredient for the health and flowering of any democratic government is, of course, sacrifice. This is the notion that to secure and guarantee the fruits of human freedom, we as citizens are called at certain times (I’d say in all times) to give. 

Give: money in taxes to support all of those bright shiny government programs we are so often quick to demand but are not so quick to actually want to support with our earnings. Who doesn’t love the benefits of Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid or national defense or helping with student debt? Those communal safety nets support millions of us, all of us, as Americans.  But dare any candidate have the guts to say that we must actually pay for what we demand and expect as citizens?  

Give: our time and effort as recipients of freedom. Vote. Vote every single time we have the chance to and not just when it is convenient or when we are excited about an election or candidate or when it suits our group or our party.  Even though the United States is the seventh oldest continuous democratic government in the world (Greece holds the record beginning in the 5^th century BC), as a nation we are dismal in meeting our electoral responsibilities.  In the 2016, just 55.7 percent of eligible voters in the United States turned out for elections. That pathetic number ranks us twenty-sixth out of thirty-two developed democratic states nations around the globe.     

Give: time to help out our communities through volunteerism.  Work the polls.  Work for a candidate. Serve on a town or city board. Serve in the military. On this last sacrificial ideal—citizens answering the call to defend liberty and country—we fall so short, even for all of our national rhetoric about supporting the troops and “God Bless America”.  Less than 0.5 percent of Americans currently serve in the military.  And when it comes to ranking the states in their representation among those 2.2 million American women and men on active duty, our own Massachusetts, the so-called cradle of liberty, ranks 49^th out of the 50 states for military service.

So, here’s a July 4^th challenge to candidates and citizens alike.  To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, let’s ask not what our country can do for us; let’s instead ask what we can do for our country and then actually do something as a thank you for the freedoms we enjoy. Let’s move beyond flag lapel pins and knowing most of the words to the national anthem as the lowest common denominator of our lives as citizens.  

Let’s instead do the sacrificial work of democracy.  Let’s demand candidates who have the courage and the honesty to ask us to give and not just to get. Let us be less greedy for the benefits of freedom and more committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure our continued pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

Now that would be a great birthday present to the United States of America.