America is a promise

I don't think I've ever thought more about what America means and what it means to be American than I have this Fourth of July. This week, after I read this Washington Post article about an ICE raid in Ohio that left children virtually abandoned, I had the dismal thought that celebrating July 4 seemed almost obscene.

Then Eli and I read this library book:

Synopsis: White boy and his nuclear family go to their small-town park for a pet parade, popcorn and pizza at the Pee Wee Football booth, raffle tickets for the American Legion, antique cars, a bandstand, Kiwanis, firemen showing off water battles, the Knights of Columbus, a BBQ, a concert under the stars, Yankee Doodle, Stars and Stripes Forever, the Cub Scouts, a reading of the Declaration of Independence, the Star-Spangled Banner and fireworks.

Which is all fine, I guess, but it isn't like any Fourth of July I've ever had, and no one even says anything about freedom or democracy or independence or even the Coney Island hot dog eating contest, which let's face it is as American as it gets.

If Eli cared to listen, here's what I'd want him to know about America this Fourth of July:

America is an experiment.
242 years ago, democracy hadn't been tried before. It was Thomas Jefferson who wrote, "No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth." Especially now, it can seem like the American experiment is failing. But...

America is a contradiction.
We inadvertently left NY1 on during a report about a woman from Ecuador who was reunited with the child who was taken away from her at the border and then had to explain the Trump administration's border policy to Eli, who confidently declared, "If George Washington was still president he'd let the families stay together"...except, I gently reminded him, we've been to Washington's house and seen his slave quarters. Washington, who once wrote, "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see some plan adopted for the abolition of slavery," owned more than 200 slaves. America is the sanctity of life for fetuses and thousands of gun deaths a year. America is liberal snowflakes and conservatives who think union dues violate their free speech. America is opportunity for all and unaffordable health insurance.

But most of all, America is a promise.
America is a "skinny kid with a funny name" who grew up to be president. America is a dog who saved its owner from a rattlesnake. America is black and Latino kids in Queens learning to swim and then becoming lifeguards. America is an 18-year-old kid going to college even as his undocumented father is deported. America is Pee Wee football and the Knights of Columbus but also cricket in Flushing Meadows Park and the Guardian Angels. America can do better and must do better. America is a promise that it's up to us to keep.