My K-12 social studies and history education was horribly anemic (well, not my Benedict Arnold diorama; that was powerful). As a kid, I got the sense that the history of this country was a series of extraordinarily boring episodes in which some hapless villain stupidly threatened to kill a Big Indisputable Idea (freedom, independence, justice) and was soundly defeated by the USA. Superman minus Superman.
Seldom, if ever, did we explore notions of US citizenship as anything more than a badge to be proud of, a Pepsi License to Chill card conferring the kind of big rights and impunity deserved only by the lucky inhabitants of the world's best country.
THANK GOD for those rights, for real. But in my adulthood, it's come to my attention that our rights are not in fact "inalienable," eternally encoded in the ether. They're actually pretty dang alienable, revisable, protected and expanded only by citizens who understand, like you do as a grown-up, that rights genuinely are always attended by responsibilities. Less fun than true!
As a young evangelical, I was taught not to get too caught up in politics, since "this world was not our home." Even now, I consider my Table (or "Kingdom of God") identity primary: I'm a Table citizen before I'm an American citizen. But this world, um, is my home? And however ambivalent I can feel about the USA, it's my home, too. Its policies and politics directly affect the accessibility and provision of the global Table. I can't enjoy its rights without taking some responsibility for them, helping out like we all do at any dinner party (well, "we all" except the one brother-in-law sitting in the corner sports-betting on his phone; we see you, KYLE).
Today I've been thinking about a recommendation from Pantsuit Politics' Beth Silvers: that we see the Fourth of July as an opportunity not just to celebrate (either uncritically or ironically or ambivalently), but to annually re-up our citizenship commitments, to consider how, this year, we'll take responsibility for protecting and expanding the rights we care about. She even proposes making something like a Fourth of July resolution, an idea both dear and revolutionary.
I'm not ready for that yet, but I'm headed in that direction—always keeping an eye on the inextricable links between my privileges as an American and my desire to live at the Table. And I'm glad to be headed there with you!
Love you millions. How are those habits going???
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