Patriotic and Peace-filled

By Rev. Carol Bodeau

Dear Friends,

July has arrived and with it, the annual Fourth of July celebrations and festivities. This year, the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence means that the hoopla is even more pronounced than usual.

For UU's, the idea of being patriotic can sometimes be challenging. For many, to be 'patriotic' is equivalent to being supportive of certain historical patterns, or political ideals, or social norms. And UU's tend to be the ones who deviate from these things, and challenge them. We are the ones who question unworkable patterns because we know we can do better.

What does it mean to be truly patriotic? In general, we see being 'patriotic' as experiencing and exhibiting a sense of love or loyalty to your nation, to the geographically and politically defined area you call 'home.' But because such areas are so broadly characterized and defined, it's hard to really pin down what it means to love America. One might 'love' specific stated values of a nation, like liberty and independence, but those words are pretty tricky to define. Or one might deeply love the historical traditions and habits that one personally associates with a culture, like fireworks, baseball, and apple pie. But each of us comes from profoundly different backgrounds and family identities, so we might love sweet potato pie and rugby. We might love the stories of our ancestors, which are as varied as the nations from which we all originate.

At this time of the year, there are certain assumed behaviors that our media and cultural institutions assert we should engage in to express loyalty to the United States of America. But perhaps those are not your ways of expressing your love for, and devotion to, the values expressed in that July 4, 1776 document.

Some of you may know that my PhD work was in early American history and literature, and that one of my side passions is studying and writing American history. So I have spent most of my adult life studying the ways America as a nation was formed. I have studied the struggles of Native Americans for sovereignty following colonial conquest; I have studied how the Underground Railroad was central to life in the Great Lakes region in the antebellum period; I have studied how women in the ministry were essential and radical voices for 19th century social reforms. These are not necessarily on the top of the list in the usual 'patriotic' must-know narratives.

But they are absolutely stories rooted in the Declaration of Independence.

To me, patriotism means loving all the voices, all the stories, all the struggles and victories that have made America a place where we the people still value democracy. I still believe in the words of that July 4, 1776 proclamation that "all {persons} are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness {and} That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed." I still believe in America, and have faith in our ability to continue to more fully and justly embody those founding values.

I hope that this 4th of July, we can all celebrate these values, that we can live our lives in ways that reinforce the democratic process, and that we can proudly and courageously proclaim our loyalty to those ideals which, for each of us, make being American something worth being proud of.

In faith and hope,

Rev. Carol