Independence
Day will never be the same for me again. Arlena and I were privileged and
blessed to be able to spend July 4 at Mt. Vernon, which is, as everyone knows,
the stately home of our first President. We were part of a bus tour that also
stopped at the War Memorials around the city and then spent some time on the
Mall. But it was being at Mt. Vernon on July 4 that made everything else pale
in comparison.
As
our tour arrived, 101 men and women from 50 countries around the world were
naturalized as citizens of the United States. Then “George Washington” spoke to
the thousands gathered around the porch to remind us about what being a citizen
means. To be sure, 101 of those who heard him truly know what that means.
Daytime red-white-and-blue fireworks put a period onto his talk.
We
did not tour the home because, blessed again, we had been there the week before
as part of a five-day tour of presidential homes in Pennsylvania (one home:
James Buchannan) and Virginia: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and
Wilson. It was almost an historical information overload. Almost. But in these
times in this country it was a blessing to be reminded how much our forefathers
(and foremothers who supported them) gave to make this country great. It has
never lost that greatness in spite of what some people say.
And
never will. Why would any of those 101 new citizens have left their homes if
not because they wanted to live and work in and become a citizen of the United
States? Why do you think there are Pittsburgh Steeler bars everywhere around
this country and even across the oceans? Why? Because Pittsburgh is still where
their heart is. For those 101 and their new compatriots all around the USA who
became citizens that day, their old home will always be where their heart but
their home is now here.
Being
at Mt. Vernon on July 4, and then watching the fireworks over the Capital from
high atop a restaurant while thousands gathered on grassy slopes and in
hundreds of boats in the Potomac to do the same, made me proud to be a citizen
yet all the while knowing that as great as we are as a country, we can and must
and will be better. The better angels among us and the better angel within us
will make that happen.
And
while the July 4ths yet to come, God willing, will never top this one, as
Martin Luther King, Jr. said on another occasion, I have been to the
mountaintop called Mt. Vernon. It will always be a reminder to me to be
thankful for all those men and women who gave their lives for me to be so
blessed to live in this great country. It is so easy to take this blessing for
granted, to even honestly and validly complain about its failings and
shortcoming. But we should never not be thankful for what we have.
If
you have any doubts about that, ask any one of those 101. That’ll clear it up.
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