Fourth of July celebrations remind us that our country was founded on patriotic dissent.
By Stephen Schrichfield
America was founded on the principle of resisting injustice, even in its earliest stages. From those who sailed to present day Massachusetts aboard the Mayflower seeking religious freedom from an unjust Church of England to more than 100 years later, when angry colonists reacted to an unfair monopoly on tea, thus sparking the American Revolution, we would not be where we are today without patriotic dissent.
Some of our most courageous moments have been in defiance of a foreign power and even to our own government. In 1776, our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, granting freedom as a sovereign nation, and in 1963, a minister from Alabama stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and proclaimed, “I have a dream.”
When our current leader is a divisive and mentally unstable man, we must resist. To sit back and say, “He’s the president, we must be respectful of his actions,” is simply foolish. Since inauguration day, there’s been a massive wave of citizen participation. From the international Women’s March, the march for science, and direct interactions with elected officials, we are hearing the voice of the people.
Regular folks who never were involved or interested in politics are now realizing what’s at stake and are taking the responsibility to organize their collective voices. The Rayburn House Office Building and the Hart Senate Office Building probably receives hundreds, if not thousands, of calls and emails every day, and they aren’t going unnoticed.
This sort of participation isn’t exclusive to politics. Over the course of the last few years, demonstrators from all over the nation have protested inequities in our criminal-justice system as well as the innocent lives of those killed by unfit police officers.
While our Founding Fathers weren’t perfect, they created a bold experiment with representative democracy that allows for citizens to make a difference. Those who crafted our government wished the voices of the people to be heard and let no one institutional power rule the land. Our freedom entails the right to resist, whether it’s our leader, factions of our three-branched system of government, or policies we view as adverse.
So I don’t care if passing a group of Black Lives Matter activists on your drive to Starbucks makes you uncomfortable or if your aunt mentioning she’s part of a local Indivisible group makes you wish she would keep that to herself. It’s the right of the people to support and dissent to their liking.
The reality is that the First Amendment is a genius tool. President Trump is allowed to spew all the nonsense he can get his little hands on, and we, the majority of the popular voters who didn’t cast a ballot for him, are also granted the right to speak out on his wrongdoings and assemble the marches that have been taking our nation by storm.
As the week of July Fourth continues, and we celebrate our 241st anniversary of patriotic dissent, it’s important to remember our origins. From humble beginnings, we celebrated the right to resist. Our Founding Fathers sought a nation that didn’t sit idly by, so go forth and make your voice heard. They’d be happy you are.
