I don’t think I was alone in feeling let down by our 250th birthday celebration. I still remember how exciting our nation’s bicentennial was. Tall ships, the American Freedom Train, historical exhibits, parades and a wonderful sense of healing and unity after the turmoil of Vietnam and Watergate, guided by a decent, self-effacing national leader in Gerald Ford.
Certainly there were lots of wonderful events here and around the country celebrating our 250th. But our nation’s capital devolved into a dispiriting, disastrous attempt to hijack our anniversary to glorify one man and one political ideology that many of us find repulsive. The televised Capitol Fourth many of us always looked forward to became just another Trump campaign rally.
The good news is that this milestone doesn’t have to be a washout. I believe we should treat this anniversary of our founding not as a self-congratulatory celebration of how wonderful we are, but as a challenge to begin transforming the United States into a place where every person really is created equal, with an equal shot at a happy, successful life.
I like using my own story as an example of why many of us who have achieved a semblance of the American Dream shouldn’t be too full of ourselves.
My wife and I ended up with good educations, fulfilling careers, a nice house, children and grandchildren we love and now an economically secure retirement. But we didn’t do it alone.
After my father got out of the Navy and went to work as a telephone repairman, he and my mom were able to buy one of the original Levittowner ranch homes in Levittown, Bucks County, for about $10,000. Twelve or so years later, when he started working in New York City, the equity they had built up enabled them to buy a larger home in a New Jersey metropolitan bedroom community.
They were able to afford to send me to Lehigh University. They and my wife’s dad helped us financially as we were buying a home and sending our kids to college. When my parents died, the proceeds from selling their house allowed my wife and me to pay off almost all our debt, so we were able to retire comfortably.
We worked hard to get here. But we also were lucky.
If my parents had been black, for example, they’d have been barred from buying that inexpensive Levittown home. It was the same story in many other communities, where people of color were barred by covenants or couldn’t get mortgage loans because of who they were or where they lived. So a lot of them ended up in inferior housing, in inferior neighborhoods, in inferior jobs, in inferior schools.
No equity. No upward mobility. No inheritance to help their kids and grandkids achieve financial security.
Is there less racism today than in the ‘50s and ‘60s? Absolutely. But the legacy remains in cities and towns across America, and those who want to whitewash it – in our schools, in our museums, in our national policies – are perpetuating injustices that we still need to acknowledge and address with imagination and compassion.
I can’t remember a time when that American Dream felt less obtainable, and not just for people of color. Our national tax policies, disgracefully low minimum wage requirements, soaring housing prices, our healthcare system all have conspired to crush the middle class and the American Dream of home ownership, upward mobility and giving our kids a better life than we had.
While a handful of millionaires, billionaires – and now, trillionaires – become richer and richer, more and more people are sinking into despair, if they weren’t there already. While corporate CEOs are rewarded with astronomical salaries, their workers struggle to earn a living wage, if they haven’t been laid off.
Immigrants and refugees aren’t the only ones our nation is slamming its doors to. We’re slamming them in the faces of people right here whose dream of something better for themselves and their families is fading fast.
Acknowledging all this doesn’t make us less patriotic. It opens the door for real patriotism – not just pride in your country, but a determination to use your votes and your voices to make it better.
Until all hard-working Americans are paid living wages and have access to affordable housing, affordable healthcare, safe neighborhoods, a good education and the pursuit of personal happiness, we have a lot more work to do.
Until we make it abundantly clear that we have no use for bigotry, rejoin the global effort to slow climate change, free our elections from the corrupting influence of wealthy contributors, return to being a positive force in the world and a reliable ally to those who share our commitment to freedom – I could go on for pages – we have a lot more work to do.
A lot of this may feel unattainable, given the state of our nation. So just consider this a call for a 250th anniversary rebirth of real patriotism, the kind that doesn’t require a lapel pin or America First rhetoric.
It’s the kind that says: I love my country – and I want us to be better. Much better.
This is a contributed opinion column. Bill White can be reached at whitebil1974@gmail.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com/opinions.