Our ever-evolving nation celebrates another birthday as we enjoy the Fourth of July

This Fourth of July our grand country will be one year older. As a senior citizen myself, I can relate to the aches and pains that sometimes come along with the gift of continuing to live.

Some of my — and my country’s — years have been happier or more productive than others, but all are due celebration and reevaluation. I often wonder how our founding fathers must have felt, proclaiming liberty and justice for all on July 4, 1776.

To our country’s framers those words must have sounded so sweet. They must have felt almost giddy with their creation of a new nation. Imagine, they had just founded a brand new country on the rock of equality and justice. That does not happen everyday. After a long, hard fought war against British monarch King George III, the 13 colonies were no longer subjects. They were free, united, and independent. The eyes of the world were on this new nation.

Founding father James Wilson was proud of the nation’s newly framed constitution that said,” We the people, free and enlightened, establishing and ratifying a system of government exercising its greatest power, performing an act of sovereignty, original and unlimited.”

Wilson held out great expectations for the youthful country, destined to become the leader of the free world. Another of our founding fathers, future President John Adams, proclaimed that the annual celebration of this great event should be ”Solemnized with pomp, parades, shows, games, sports, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward.”

That may be impossible to do this year as we battle for our country’s physical and foundational health. But, we can celebrate anyhow, each in our own way.

I cannot imagine a Fourth that has been subject to such growing pains. Former President George W. Bush, while speaking outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, 2001, remarked: ”That document (the Constitution) continues to represent the standard to which we hold others, and the standard by which we will measure ourselves. Our greatest achievements have come when we have lived up to these ideals. Our greatest tragedies have come when we have failed to uphold them.”

On another July 4th, this time in 1852, Black intellectual, journalist and abolitionist Frederick Douglass decried the brutalities of slavery that were still prevalent in the South at that time. He had hope, saying ”I draw encouragement from the Declaration of Independence. The greatest principles it contains, and the genius of the American Institution in operation, must inevitability work towards the downfall of slavery.”

Since the end of slavery, which strengthened our character as a nation, there has been a slow process in attaining full equal rights. We have also seen growing pains in the hard-fought battle for women in our country, who marched for their right to vote, and for equal pay.

Perfecting our country over time is much like the aches and pains of my own aging body, sometimes I take some steps forward and then slip back some. It is hard to be patient with ourselves and others.

My grandpa would talk with me about understanding “the big issue,” saying: ”Well, how would you feel if you were the other guy?” Grandpa always made a lot of sense, even at the times I did not want him to.

Celebrating the Fourth this year, I find myself waxing nostalgic, tempered with thoughts of grandpa’s empathy. I love my country, still we have issues that we need to work together on.

Our Constitution, our beloved country, is a living thing, and by definition that means it must change and move forward, ever perfecting itself and at the same time staying true.

I remember as a girl of 6 standing on the crowded sidewalk of downtown Detroit on Fourth of July. It was a very hot, humid day, but my mother had me dressed in my Sunday best out of respect for our country’s birthday. Even then my eyes teared up when our grand flag was proudly carried down the street as people stood erect and proud.

I learned early on to be proud to be an American. As they said so many years ago, we are striving to make a more perfect union, and that means that we’ll keep striving until it works for us all.

This story was originally published July 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.