July 3, 2019
Page 9
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How Do You Celebrate a Flawed Nation?
Strive to create
a better union
J ill r iCharDson
As the Fourth of
July rolls around, I
think plenty of us
are eager for bar-
becues, corn on the
cob, watermelon and
fireworks, but our feelings about
our country are somewhat more
complicated.
How do you love and cele-
brate a country that’s so obviously
flawed? A country that’s currently
committing atrocities against in-
nocent children?
Is criticizing America unpatri-
otic? Some would say it is. I say
no.
For me, loving this country
means making it better. It means
taking a good hard look at our
mistakes, learning from the ones
in the past, and correcting the ones
in the present.
That’s something we don’t do
enough. When I teach sociolo-
gy at the college level, again and
again my students say things like,
“This isn’t the country I thought
I lived in.” Sadly, though, we are
that country.
When you examine the full
extent of the poverty, inequali-
ty, racism, sexism, homophobia,
and so on in this country, it can
by
feel crushing. We still have a lot
of work to do. But there’s a quote
from Bill Clinton — himself a
deeply imperfect president — that
says it all: “There is nothing
wrong with America that
cannot be cured with what is
right in America.”
When I teach, I balance
all of the bad news with the
good news. For one thing,
unthinkable back then.
Today, that bar, the Stonewall
Inn, is a National Monument. We
still have work to do, but we’re on
our way.
Fifty years ago, the Cuyahoga
River was on fire due to the pol-
lution in the water. Today, the fish
in that river are safe to eat. The
Cuyahoga River fire was a cata-
lyst to Americans to clean up our
If you look at the progress of our
past, from the writing and ratifying of
the Constitution, to the emancipation of
enslaved people, to women claiming the
right to vote, and the Civil Rights movement
of the 1960s, the American people worked
hard to make it happen — often with
other Americans working against them,
sometimes violently.
much of our history is a story of
strong movements pushing us in
the right direction.
Fifty years ago, LGBTQ peo-
ple marked the start of their civil
rights movement with a riot when
the police cracked down on them
for simply being themselves and
going to a bar. Today, many of us
no longer need to hide in a bar to
be ourselves. For one thing, we
can legally marry if we so choose,
environment. We aren’t perfect
today, and we need to get much,
much more serious about climate
change, but movements have
shown that big change is possible.
Sometimes we take big steps
backwards after we take a few
forward. After the advances of
the Civil Rights movement in the
1950s and 1960s, progress stalled
and some of the gains were erod-
ed. The last major civil rights bill,
the Fair Housing Act, was passed
in 1968.
After the 2008 election, Barack
Obama became the first black
president. In 2017, white nation-
alists held a major rally in Char-
lottesville, Virginia, where Donald
Trump spoke of “very fine people
on both sides.” Our country clear-
ly needs a lot more work to be-
come the “more perfect union” it
strives to be in its founding doc-
uments.
If you look at the progress of
our past, from the writing and rat-
ifying of the Constitution, to the
emancipation of enslaved people,
to women claiming the right to
vote, and the Civil Rights move-
ment of the 1960s, the American
people worked hard to make it
happen — often with other Ameri-
cans working against them, some-
times violently.
It was never easy. It’s still not
easy. But that doesn’t mean it
can’t be done.
This Fourth of July, don’t cel-
ebrate a nation that’s perfect al-
ready. Celebrate a nation where
movements have spent more than
two centuries struggling and fight-
ing and striving to create an ever
more perfect union, and commit
yourself to continuing to do so.
OtherWords columnist Jill
Richardson is pursuing a PhD in
sociology at the University of Wis-
consin-Madison.
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