Here are a few reflections on Heather McClure’s insightful Independence Day column:

1. Most peoples’ desire to come to America was not the result of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by our forefathers. This isn’t the document that “started it all” with respect to immigration.

2. “They wanted to make new lives for themselves where they would be financially successful and secure no matter who they were.”… hmm … sounds like everyone was reading Money Magazine or something. Economic motivations were very great, but Ms. McClure disregards other motivations for coming to the “New World” as well, be they religious, political, adventurous, or other.

3. Ms. McClure should be heralded for pointing out the reasons that make the US of A all worthwhile “there is economic growth and a stable government.”

Yes folks, as long as THE ECONOMY (insert angelic chorus and blaring trumpets here) grows “ours is still a truly fortunate society.” Despite our problems, the economy grows.

Don’t mind the problem with our welfare systems. Don’t mind that the U.S. has a greater income disparity between rich and poor than any other industrialized nation. (Some explain this away using statistics and international comparisons, but if you have ever met poor Americans, or are in a financial bind yourself, you might see this as a problem.) Don’t mind economic discrimination both of women and minorities.

4. Now, onto an examination of Ms. McClure’s magnificent historical analysis of the fortune with which America has been blessed. As she is so fit to declare, the “one simple answer is that our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers refused to give up.”

Hey! What about our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers? “[Our fathers et al] worked to lay down the roots of this country”?! Worked to tear up the roots of this country is more like it: deforestation, habitat destruction, pollution … “fought against all of those who tried to destroy it.” … hardly!

5. Cheers to Ms. McClure for her recognition of veterans. However, I can’t help but solemnly wonder how much of their sacrifice actually stands for human freedom and how much of it might merely have been spent for the power struggles of competing political philosophies.

6. For shame that Ms. McClure should have been mocked in an English pub. Just imagine the trauma of having your God-given freedom threatened in such a manner! I can clearly see how after her freedom was nearly jeopardized in the torturous pub of some oppressive regime, Ms. McClure has gained a newfound appreciation for the civil and human rights which are the gift of her benevolent government. Keep praying allegiance to the flag, Heather.

There are reasons to celebrate on the Fourth of July. Conditions are much better in the US than in many other parts of the world, but it isn’t because we have a nice and generous government. It is because we have a Constitution which limits and balances the powers of the different parts of the government.

You can celebrate Independence Day because of our relative degree of national independence and individual freedom.

You can also celebrate it as a memorial of the lives that have been lost, for better or worse, throughout the history of this country. It is also a potential day for rallying to cause of what America can become.

After all, we have immense social and ecological problems. We are far from pure democracy, and we are far from true freedom. There is a lot to work towards.

In the meantime, I want to ask, just what do you mean by freedom, Heather? Freedom for or freedom from what? Freedom of what? Freedom for whom? Please take your own advice and THINK about what freedom means to you.

Also, please take that history requirement that you’ve been putting off.

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Michael Pitula

Senior

Environmental science and Spanish