In gatherings large and small on Martha’s Vineyard, at beaches, in backyards, and along Main Street, Edgartown, this Saturday Islanders will join Americans across the United States and celebrate the Fourth of July, and the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” embedded in the Declaration of Independence.
The celebration will take place against a backdrop of heightened security brought on by increased fear of a terrorist attack. The threat is real, security experts say. The stakes are high. The enemy is unflinching in its disregard for the freedoms that are at the core of our society, and seeks to inflict terror for terror’s sake.
As we join family and friends, we may take some comfort knowing that even as we enjoy this national holiday, there are men and women who will, and must, remain vigilant and at their posts, whether on a local street corner or on patrol in a dangerous corner of the globe.
On the Fourth, if even for a moment between ribs and fireworks, we who reap the benefits of this free society ought to take a moment to think about the future, and reflect on the past, and draw confidence from our history. Our nation has prevailed over threats in the past. But nothing is ever certain.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and West Tisbury resident David McCullough made that point in an address on Sept. 27, 2005, to a large Marriott Center audience at Brigham Young University soon after publication of “1776,” his engrossing description of the perilous year that followed the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Mr. McCullough told the audience that “nothing ever had to happen the way it happened. Any great past event could have gone off in any number of different directions for any number of different reasons. We should understand that history was never on a track. It was never preordained that it would turn out as it did.
“Very often we are taught history as if it were predetermined, and if that way of teaching begins early enough and is sustained through our education, we begin to think that it had to have happened as it did. We think that there had to have been a Revolutionary War, that there had to have been a Declaration of Independence, that there had to have been a Constitution, but never was that so. In history, chance plays a part again and again. Character counts over and over. Personality is often the determining factor in why things turn out the way they do.”
In this age of the sound bite, tweet, and shared YouTube gaffe, it would be easy to arrive at the conclusion that men and women of character are missing from the political landscape. That is just as false today as it was in 1776. It is up to voters to look past the electronic chaff and recognize character when we see it.
Mr. McCullough reminds us that George Washington made mistakes, but he learned from them, and retained the confidence of the men under his leadership.
In his address, Mr. McCullough quoted Abigail Adams. In one of her many letters to her husband, John, who was off in Philadelphia working to put the Declaration of Independence through Congress, she wrote, “Posterity who are to reap the blessings, will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors.”
Saturday is a day for celebration. There is still work to be done, but as we cheer the fireworks, we ought not to forget what it is we celebrate and the hard work it took.
