An Imperfect Union

The great hoopla was about to begin. It was the bicentennial of the nation’s declaration of independence. Robert Bowls was a young history professor. He was trying to write a prospective on the nation’s history for the celebration. He looked down at the paper on his desk. He had typed, “An Imperfect Union of Fallible People,” at the top of the page. It was too long for a title. He crossed out the last three words. He had a particular aversion to the pledge reciting, flag waving type of patriotism that too often resulted in a “my country right or wrong” mind set. “The attitude is actually worse than that,” he thought. “It’s a self-righteous belief that our country is always right. The remarkable thing is that so many still believe it in spite of Vietnam and Watergate.”

He was beginning to regret accepting a faculty position with a conservative mid-western college that required freshmen and sophomores to attend chapel once a week and that put pressure on faculty members to attend chapel at least twice a month. They always began the chapel by having everyone recite the pledge of allegiance. That is fine for a private college like this one, but reciting the damn pledge was also required in public schools. Robert believed that the insertion of “under God’ into the pledge made that requirement unconstitutional. Judging from the way conservatives deify our founding fathers, he believed it would have been every bit as appropriate to have inserted “under gods” into the pledge. He wondered why the people most inclined to talk about the wisdom of our founding fathers and the Constitution are the very people who know the least about either of those subjects?

What he was writing was bound to raise some hackles. Well, the hell with it. What he wanted to celebrate was not the myths but the realities. And they were wonderful realities in spite of the flaws. The first page of what he wrote contained the following:

“If you ask someone who has not put much time and effort into studying our history to name the greatest founding father other than Washington, that person would be hard pressed to give you an answer. If you ask someone who has spent a great deal of time and effort studying our history to name the greatest founding father other than Washington, that person would also be hard pressed to give you an answer. If you asked me that question and you were talking about independence and the revolution, I would choose John Adams. Many historians call him the father of independence. The problem is that he is not who I would hold up as a model for what a President should be. Thomas Jefferson’s views on democracy are very appealing, but his endorsement of slavery was hardly consistent with the proposition that all men are created equal. The founding father I would choose, other than Washington, would be Benjamin Franklin, but that is beside the point.

The fact is that fallible human beings worked out imperfect compromises to give us our start. What we quite correctly celebrate is not their intent. If we followed their intent, only white male property owners could vote, and we would still have slavery. Fortunately, what we celebrate are the great principles they stated. I am not one who believes that taking our founding fathers in their time excuses things such as slavery, but we cannot ignore their times either. What they did was very courageous and wise for those times. The wisest thing they did was to provide a peaceful mechanism for change. This has allowed us to change our laws in a manner that makes them more consistent with the stated principles upon which our nation was founded. The true patriot is not the person who thinks this country is sacrosanct and above all criticism. The true patriot is the one who tries to make this country better and helps it live up to its ideals. This was true of our founding fathers, and it is true of us.”
 
Robert rose from the chair behind his desk and walked to the men’s room. Was he about to figuratively piss on the festivities? He could almost hear the other professors saying: “Bob, you talked about the mechanism for peaceful change. Did you forget that it took a civil war to end slavery? Did you forget that many of the other social and legal changes were not all that peaceful? Obviously, those changes are not what we want to talk about at this time. We want to hear you say how great we are. This is supposed to be a celebration! What with the anti-war demonstrations, the civil rights movement, and Nixon resigning in disgrace, we’ve heard far too much about change as it is. Forget the strife. Let us wave our flags, recite the pledge of allegiance, and shoot off our fireworks in peace! Let us celebrate the myths and the reality.”

When Robert tried to zip up his trousers he could only get the zipper to raise a few inches. He had been so distracted by his thoughts that he had allowed his shirttail to catch in the zipper. No matter how hard he tried he could not get the zipper to budge. He would have to race home and change his clothes before his next class. “This demonstration of my fallibility is far too graphic,” he thought. “It is not what I care to display or anyone else cares to see.” College life is not all books and study; it is also spilled beer, unzipped trousers, and a grumpy professor who will tell you our founding fathers were not perfect even as you are trying to celebrate their virtues. That is as it should be.

First published in macsbackporch.foxtail-farms.com on Apr. 27, 2010