This Land Is Our Land/Fly Your Flag

Happy Fourth of July if you're one of my U.S. readers. This year finds the holiday plopped smack dab in the middle of the week on a Wednesday. So far today not much done unless you count conversation/human interaction as a worthy use of my time. Talked with Victor about his and my work, Liza about a possible job at the school my daughter works at, Mark (tenant) about his new girlfriend, Mario (tenant) about his work and his girlfriend, Madeleine (daughter) about her future. What I haven't done is talk about myself and my problems - these days trying to be useful to other people, my issues are old news, the stuff of broken records.

Today my thoughts are full of the holiday. Memories from my childhood and when my kids were younger, thoughts about the country's origins, worries about where we're headed. I should be flying the flag today but in the current state of house disorganization, I can't remember where it is. Goal=by Labor Day (September) I'll have unearthed it and will display it proudly.

The whole flag thing is a loaded issue in the U.S. For some reason, flying the flag smacks to some people as unthinking, chauvenistic patriotism - the worst of America - the "love it or leave it" crowd. Can't stand that thinking because it's so myopic and limiting and closed bordered. When I was growing up, my hippie bohemian parents wouldn't be caught dead flying a flag - staunch, very left leaning Democrats, especially ones from Cape Cod (Kennedy country), they lived in polar opposition to their tidy, narrow-minded, perfect lawn, Republican neighbors who displayed their patriotism openly and supported sending their sons to wars in far off lands. If my parents had flown a flag it probably would have been, at that time, the communist flag, or a Sufi Muslim flag, or something with cryptic poetry a la Allen Ginsberg adorning it. Something edgy and controversial sure to rouse the ire of their more conservative neighbors.

Anyway, I'm a grown-up now and I've got my own ideas about the flag and this country - ideas I'm pretty passionate about. Love the song This Land is Your Land by Pete Seeger. It expresses the sentiment that we all share the munificence of this amazing country with its unparalleled beauty and resources. We share it for the time being, hopefully realizing the only constant is change and reinvention.We are only renters - just the latest tenants in this place. Those would would try to preserve things exactly as they are now don't have a long view of history. It just doesn't work - the forces of change always win. Imagine the Indians trying to stem the tide of Europeans who eventually overthrew them? Shit happens so you just have to enjoy your place in the sun while you have it - make some hay.

Having taken that long view of history and realizing the U.S. in 100, 200, 500 years from now will look nothing like it looks today (who knows what the borders will be? Maybe we'll get pissed off at the Candadians and just annex them and Mexico? We will all be Mexican by then so really what's the point of a border?), I am passionately in love with this country, this time in history, the Midwest, my not so little town of Evanston which is like a resort in the summer. We are incredibly fortunate and many of us forget that. Back in Colonial times, the sacrifices that were made to secure our freedom as a nation were astounding. So much has been written about the founding fathers, much of it myth to create nationalism in a foundling country (propaganda is always a useful tool in uniting disparate peoples and colonists were very disparate), but if you strip away the myth, the facts of the sacrifices made by people like George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson were remarkable. I lifted this from another site - it bears reading today.

We tend to forget that to sign the Declaration of Independence was to commit an act of treason and the punishment for treason was death. To publicly accuse George III of "repeated injuries and usurpations," to announce that Americans were therefore "Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown," was a move fraught with danger -- so much so that the names of the signers were kept secret for six months. They were risking everything, and they knew it. That is the meaning of the Declaration's soaring last sentence: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." Most of the signers survived the war; several went on to illustrious careers. Two of them became presidents of the United States, and among the others were future vice presidents, senators, and governors. But not all were so fortunate. 

Nine of the 56 died during the Revolution, and never tasted American independence. 

Five were captured by the British. 

Eighteen had their homes -- great estates, some of them - looted or burnt by the enemy. 

Some lost everything they owned. 

Two were wounded in battle. 

Two others were the fathers of sons killed or captured during the war. 

"Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." It was not just a rhetorical flourish. We all recognize John Hancock's signature, but who ever notices the names beneath his? William Ellery, Thomas Nelson, Richard Stockton, Button Gwinnett, Francis Lewis -- to most of us, these are names without meaning.But each represents a real human being, some of whom paid dearly "for the support of this Declaration" and American independence.

Lewis Morris of New York, for example, must have known when he signed the Declaration that he was signing away his fortune. Within weeks, the British ravaged his estate, destroyed his vast woodlands, butchered his cattle, and sent his family fleeing for their lives. 

Another New Yorker, William Floyd, was also forced to flee when the British plundered his property. He and his family lived as refugees for seven years without income. The strain told on his wife; she died two years before the war ended. 

Carter Braxton of Virginia, an aristocratic planter who had invested heavily in shipping, saw most of his vessels captured by the British navy. His estates were largely ruined, and by the end of his life he was a pauper. 

The home of William Ellery, a Rhode Island delegate, was burned to the ground during the occupation of Newport. 

Thomas Heyward Jr., Edward Rutledge, and Arthur Middleton, three members of the South Carolina delegation, all suffered the destruction or vandalizing of their homes at the hands of enemy troops. All three were captured when Charleston fell in 1780, and spent a year in a British prison. 

Thomas Nelson Jr. of Virginia raised $2 million for the patriots' cause on his own personal credit. The government never reimbursed him, and repaying the loans wiped out his entire estate. During the battle of Yorktown, his house, which had been seized by the British, was occupied by General Cornwallis. Nelson quietly urged the gunners to fire on his own home. They did so, destroying it. He was never again a man of wealth. He died bankrupt and was buried in an unmarked grave. 

Richard Stockton, a judge on New Jersey's supreme court, was betrayed by loyalist neighbors. He was dragged from his bed and thrown in prison, where he was brutally beaten and starved. His lands were devastated, his horses stolen, his library burnt. He was freed in 1777, but his health had so deteriorated that he died within five years. His family lived on charity for the rest of their lives. 

In the British assault on New York, Francis Lewis's home and property were pillaged. His wife was captured and imprisoned; so harshly was she treated that she died soon after her release. Lewis spent the remainder of his days in relative poverty. 

And then there was John Hart. The speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, he was forced to flee in the winter of 1776, at the age of 65, from his dying wife's bedside. While he hid in forests and caves, his home was demolished, his fields and mill laid waste, and his 13 children put to flight. When it was finally safe for him to return, he found his wife dead, his children missing, and his property decimated. He never saw any of his family again and died, a shattered man, in 1779. 

The men who signed that piece of parchment in 1776 were the elite of their colonies. They were men of means and social standing, but for the sake of liberty, they pledged it all -- their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.We are in their debt to this day.

Challenge for today is taking a humble moment and giving thanks for this time and place in history, this beautiful country, and the ancestors who came before us who had a vision of democracy and who, through personal sacrifice, made that dream a reality. We should also give thanks to the soldiers who represent us in the world and preserve our safety, often with their own lives.  Regardless of whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, etc. you should consider flying the flag in solidarity. We're in this together. This land is our land - at least for now.

Peace,
Sarah