I love the Fourth of July. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. As it approaches every year, I’m filled with the same memories of barbecue, watermelon, fireworks, hot sun, History Channel specials, and of playing ridiculously long parades as part of a marching band. (I usually try to forget that last memory.) Needless to say I love the Fourth. I love how we celebrate. I love what it represents. Most of all, though, I love who it represents.
So let’s be honest here, the real heroes of the Fourth of July are, in my opinion, the Founding Fathers. I cannot think of another collective group of men with such courage, honesty, selflessness, and character as those who laid the foundation on which this country rests. *DISCLAIMER TIME* The current trend with historians is to find any and every fault in our great national heroes. YES, they weren’t perfect people. Why? Because they were humans! Humans make mistakes (don’t mean to burst your bubble). Did they make poor choices both in public and in private? YES. Did they ever profess to be anything other than human? NO. They were, however, greater than perhaps any of you or I will ever be, so I think that we ought to give them the respect they deserve. Let haters hate, and let naggers nag, but the purpose of this blog is to highlight the men and women who do great things as a result of the values they live, and these men most certainly qualify.
Ok, I’ll get off my soap box now. Sorry. Forgive me? Ok, good. As I was saying . . . what was I saying? While I work on calling back the conductor of my train of thought, I’ll let someone else do the saying for me. One April day in 1962 President John F. Kennedy was hosting quite the distinguished gathering of Nobel Prize winners in the White House. Enjoying their meal and the company of one another, President Kennedy then rises to make this statement: “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House . . .” I imagine him pausing here and looking at all the content and semi-smug faces of these deserving figures. But Kennedy continues, ” . . . with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
Jefferson. What a guy! And that goes for the rest of them as well. Of these men the mid-1800s Reverend John F. Bigelow said, “The American cause needed men of far-sighted sagacity, of regulative talent, of constitutive ideas, of able statesmanship. It needed men of diplomatic abilities, those who would be faithful at home, and just abroad. It needed men of incorruptible patriotism, those who would fill the offices of Government, not in the interest of self, but in that of the country. How adequately God supplied the men to meet these demands, our constitutional history leaves us in no doubt.”
But amidst all of the greatness, one man still seems to rise above the others: Mr. General President George Washington. Another reverend by the name of George Cheever stated that “Divine Providence had, for years, been giving him special training for his work. . . . I cannot but think that the hand of God was signally manifest, and in nothing more so than in giving us just such a man as our Washington. . . . It is not too much to say that, had he been a different man, in the slightest essential degree, . . . he would have failed . . . and the American cause would have been lost.” Think of that character! Think of the responsibility! He did not succeed because of what he did, but because of who he was.
As the war was coming to a close and a treaty had been made, a young American-born painter named Benjamin West found himself in the presence of King George III. The king, crushed by the solidified fact that his colonies now had a future of their own, asked Mr. West if he had heard any news regarding what was to become of Washington after the war. “Oh, they say he will return to his farm” answered West. The King paused, contemplating the fact that Washington would be willing to give up the greatest position of power that could ever be so freely handed to someone. “If he does that,” said the king, “he will be the greatest man in the world.”
The greatest? That’s for you to decide. But there is no doubt that he is a true man of character. This is the whole point that I’m so poorly trying to make: Men and women of character have the power to change the world. They change lives, they change hearts, they change attitudes, cultures, and behaviors. Washington and his fellow men lived outstanding lives which sprung from the deep roots of moral values. None of the greatness could have ever existed if any of them faltered from who they really were, and from who they were supposed to be.
I began with saying I love who the Fourth of July represents. I conclude by saying that it represents all of us. It represents all who are in active pursuit of destiny, of character, and of values. I hope that it represents you, Reader. May your good character change the world around you.
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