The abolitionists of the 19th century valued, revered, and lived by the words of the Declaration of Independence. The proclamation “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 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” affirmed that all individuals possess equal human dignity. The abolitionists lived in one era when our country was not living up to those words, and as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, like them, we find the promise of those words again in peril.
Margaret Fuller
| Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsPatriotism is not just blindly supporting our country. True patriotism is actively working to ensure that our country lives up to the words of the Declaration. We have not always succeeded in accomplishing that, but nevertheless, throughout our history, men and women have fought for the equality promised by the Declaration. I have made it my career to magnify the ones not afraid to take a stand. The people who question authority. The people who fight for what’s right. The people who aren’t afraid to be different. The people who redefine what it means to be an American. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” signify independence.
William Lloyd Garrison
| Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsAs early as 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette commented on the independent nature of the American people’s thoughts and actions. They believed it was their God-given right to be free. Lafayette upheld the new nation as a sanctuary where personal rights were sacred, and each citizen felt empowered to follow their own path. He wrote that Americans had the rare “advantage to work a new ground” by building a virtuous and tolerant—and independent—society from scratch.
Frederick Douglass
| Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsIt’s this independent spirit that I celebrate as our country turns 250 years old. Artists, writers, rebels, soldiers, Transcendentalists, abolitionists, suffragists, hippies, explorers, radicals, naysayers, inventors, Native American shamans, musicians, anarchists, punks, troublemakers, poets, dreamers, weirdos: These are the people throughout our history who have made America socially, culturally, politically, and spiritually independent. These are the people who inspire me. Through words, music, actions, speeches, battles, and protests, they have shown us how to stand up, stand out, speak out, and put up or shut up against inequality, bigotry, and hatred.
Sitting Bull
| Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsAs Walt Whitman would say, I celebrate bygones. I celebrate the people who were involved in the Underground Railroad. The ones who fought for the 13th and 19th Amendments. The ones who marched for civil rights. I celebrate the ones who play the blues, jazz, honky-tonk, rock and roll, and hip-hop. The ones who spoke out at Seneca Falls. The ones who created American literature and defined the American identity by writing slave narratives, detective fiction, Transcendentalism, creative nonfiction, and Southern Gothic. I celebrate the ones who invented the telephone, the airplane, the internet—American inventions that made the world a smaller place and brought humanity closer together. These people were—and continue to be—the best that America has to offer.
Ida B. Wells
| Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsAs we commemorate our country’s 250th anniversary, I continue to take inspiration from radicals, troublemakers, and independent thinkers like Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Margaret Fuller, William Lloyd Garrison, and Sitting Bull. They all questioned what it means to be an American, and they all knew that America could be better. They believed in the words of the Declaration and stood up for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They stood up for independence and a country where all men and women are equal. They saw our country as an imperfect union, and they fought to make it so by going against the status quo, by saying, “Why not?” They made America great. That is what America at 250 means to me.
