This week, as our country was about to celebrate its 243rd birthday, a controversy developed over Nike’s decision to pull shoes that had the so-called Betsy Ross flag on them. They were set to go on sale on July 4 but Nike changed course, apparently following a concern from Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback whose decision a couple years back to kneel during the national anthem out of protest for the way African Americans have been treated by police. That decision to kneel in protest at NFL games has cost him dearly…. he has yet to be brought on by an NFL team.
His concern was that the flag, with a circle of 13 stars that represent the original 13 colonies, has become a symbol claimed by white nationalists. They see the revolutionary period as a time we should go back to, a time that should be celebrated. Some have said this flag is like the Confederate flag in that it points to a time back in our past when things were good, code for when there was slavery, aka the good old days.
And in our own divided time the story played out in a familiar way with people lining up on both sides. One Republican lawmaker suggesting that Kaepernick move to a different country… and others seeing it as a teachable moment about our history and what might be learned from it.
Our spiritual theme this month is story and on the surface it feels like a pretty neutral topic. But when we start talking about the story of our country, well, it doesn’t take long for the things to feel anything but neutral, anything but simple.
This, of course, was not the not the only story this week, it was not the only symbol. On July 4 we had the tanks on the National Mall, we had the president speaking on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, we had the sight of many Make America Great Again hats and people wearing all manner of flag-inspired clothing. And we had protesters with all the signs and a giant orange-faced balloon making fun of the president.
Symbols and stories are important and in this case are reminders of just how divided the country feels right now. They are reminders of just how quickly those divisions can come to the surface. You don’t need to go far at all to feel like there are some very different narratives of what our country is about and where it should be headed. If July 4 was once thought to be a non-partisan holiday, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
We are also in times when much is changing—not just here but all over the world. Immigrants seeking a better life—or simply a place where they can survive—are crossing borders and putting pressure on governments. Technology makes borders more porous, with the flow of information and the possibilities of communication much more free. Change is happening all around us and that change manifests itself in many ways including in the stories we tell, in the narratives that help us to know who we are and what our country is all about. Problem is we may define that change in very different ways. As walls come down, sometimes metaphorical walls, there’s an impulse for some to put up walls of all sorts and sizes.
So let’s unpack the Nike story a bit. I remember as a kid—I bet some of you do as well—reading about Betsy Ross. I think I even did a book report about her. She was a kind of mother of the country for her work to make that first flag. There she is by the fire with needle and thread calmly sewing the flag for our new country.
Now many years ago when I was doing that book report I don’t recall there being much controversy. It was just the way things happened. Now it turns out that exactly who made that flag to begin with is anything but certain. It was her grandson, 20 years after her death, who was the first to claim that she played this role in history. But it turns out that it isn’t all that clear who made that flag. It may be that Betsy Ross had a grandson who was really good at public relations. [1]
But the larger story—and the controversy we have today—isn’t as much about Betsy Ross as it is about telling the larger story of the time and what was happening and what it all had to do with our independence.
One of the pieces of the narrative that was important was the role that slavery played in the founding of our country. One historian writes about how many slave plantation owners and business people supported independence from Britain because at the time of the revolution slavery was coming to an end in Britain. A court there had ruled there was no legal basis for slavery. And as that happened in Britain it would have also ended in British colonies as well. After independence the US ended up writing a constitution that focused on property rights that perpetuated slavery, not human rights. Some of the founders who signed that Declaration of Independence were some of the largest slave holders in the country and their focus was to protect property, which in this case included real human beings.
This week Kaepernick tweeted a quote from Frederick Douglass, “What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.” [2]
History, we know, is not some fixed thing that never changes, it is very much something that is evolving. When it comes to the stories we tell ourselves about our country, it may start with asking just who was at the table and who was not? It may start with an openness to other sides of the story.
We know the signers where while male landowners and that there were more people than not who were left out of the picture. And yet isn’t it easy to forget those folks.
What about the women who were involved? What credit did they get? We know it would be more than a century before women would get the right to vote?
And what about people of color? Where were they? There was a time when not everyone even counted as a whole person.
What we quickly come to know is that throughout our history there have been attempts to disenfranchise whole groups of people. In fact many of us see that has happening now in the present.
All of this, I think, calls us to tell—and to hold—a bigger story, with more context, with more complexity. With more willingness to look and see not only what celebrates the ideals when our country was founded but also the ways that we fell short of those ideals, and the ways that we still fall short of those ideals.
It asks us to recognize how reading history—and telling our story—sometimes can in fact be a pretty sobering experience.
We are quickly reminded that the current debates about immigration—and the policies that would have us keeping detained children in filthy detention centers and even in cages—is part of a long pattern of keeping people out of the country. Just who was let in and who has been kept out may have changed but the pattern and the practice is pretty darn consistent.
When asked if he favored people from Asia being allowed to become American citizens—a very real debate at the time he spoke, Frederick Douglass said, “Do you ask, if I favor such immigration, I answer I would. Would you have them naturalized, and have them invested with all the rights of American citizenship? I would. Would you allow them to vote? I would. Would you allow them to hold office? I would. Why? Because “there are such things in the world as human rights, and when there is a supposed conflict between human and national rights, it is safe to go to the side of humanity.” [3]
This is a struggle that has been going on for a long time—all through our history. Douglass was one of the first people to use the language of human rights. Holding up the rights inherent in being human, the right inherent in being a citizen.
It is important to be able to put it all into that much larger context. And it is important to hold the ideals that strive to articulate those ideals from the beginning. Much has changed but some of those core ideals are still very much the same. It’s an important story to tell.
The late Rev. Forrest Church wrote that back on July 4, 1776, immediately after the declaration of Independence was adopted, Congress entrusted Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams with the task of designing the Great Seal—finding a motto for the country. Our founding brand if you will. Franklin toyed with the motto “Mind Your Business,” a double entendre evoking the spirits of American commerce and American individualism. This was eventually rejected along with some other ideas. In the final design there is an eagle holding both arrows and an olive branch but looking toward the olive branch, the sign of peace. And with it a banner reading E pluribus unum, “out of many, one”, expressing what Church calls the essence of our nation’s creed. [4]
Out of many, one. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But maybe that is one way of summing up such a long and difficult struggle. In one way we can look at how much has happened in 240 plus years. And on the other hand we can see just how deep those patterns of exclusion can be. We can see just how far it is we have to go.
One of the present day concerns is the rise of nationalism—that calls us to first see our identity first through the lens of nation. Through history that has been the justification of one group to want to control—or at its worst to destroy—some other group. And today we see it rise all over the world, in so many manifestations, including the current call for America First.
Even when our inclination might be to just mind our own business, to keep ourselves out of the fray, there is a deeper reminder that we are part of that many that make us one. Part of our calling—part of what we are asked to remain faithful to—is to recognize how we, as citizens are part of what the union will look like, how it can be more perfect. How we can be good citizens, too, of our world. When I look at my own story I wonder how my life would be different if my ancestors had come to this country at a different time in history. Would they have been allowed here at all?
Finding our truth, understanding our truth, living our truth is the challenge that freedom presents to us. Part of what citizenship asks of us is that we be clear about where we stand in the world and that we live with integrity and call on our government to live with integrity. That is a not an easy task, ever. We struggle and we sometimes fail. We don’t always say the right thing or do the right thing. Sometimes we just feel overwhelmed. But I believe that as we witness to our beliefs in the long run we succeed. We succeed when we get out of our comfort zones. Truth is we need to be a lot more uncomfortable.
Right now, I think that is an especially important story to tell.
Those of us in positions of privilege are asked to take a fuller view of things and to imagine just how the story may have looked from someone else’s perspective. We are asked to keep imagining how more and more people keep getting brought into the picture.
Part of our story that gives me hope is recognizing ways throughout our history where we have called more people into the circle, ways that we have come to embody that sense of an ever more perfect union. And sometimes that has meant taking steps backwards as well as forwards.
I’m very mindful of just how present fear seems to be around us these days. Most often it gets expressed in fear of some other be that fear of immigrants, of people of color, of queer folks. Or maybe it is simply someone who has an opinion that’s different than our own. And it is that fear that calls us from those ideals and calls us to see others as just that—the other. And that is what can lead us to put up all kinds of walls—real or metaphorical walls. It is that fear that can keep us from recognizing just how destructive some of our current policies, and practices and rhetoric can be. It may be at in times of fear—in times of division—that the story we tell becomes all the more important. Bearing witness to what is going on becomes all the more important.
Czech playwright and President Vaclav Havel once said: “There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth.” [5]
No matter what the setting, we need to keep ourselves in the process. We need to give voice to our anger and our sadness. We need to give voice to our pride and our hope. That is all part of freedom. And for those of us in places of privilege it is all the more important to recognize that privilege and also the responsibility that comes with it.
I think that is all part of the story we are called to tell in these times. Sometimes we move forward, sometimes we move backwards—but always in pursuit of what the founders called our work for build that more perfect union. Let us be ever mindful of the privilege we have, and ever mindful of the responsibility we have. Ever mindful of our power. Ever mindful of our hope and our promise. As citizens, we are all works in progress. As a country we are very much a work in progress. Democracy, too, is a work in progress—never perfect, never completed. But still, we live in hope about what it might become. Amen
Let us pray. Great spirit of life, bless us on this journey. On this day we pray for our country and her citizens. Help us to use our powers to heal and not to harm. Help us to be peacemakers. And through it all, grant us humility. May all people know health, may they know life, may they all know possibility. Amen.
Benediction: Go forth into this summer day, take courage friends. Be mindful of the power within you. Tell your story. And most of all, use your gifts to bless the world. Amen.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross [2]https://twitter.com/kaepernick7/status/1146826827593342977 [3]https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass#Our_Composite_Nationality_(1869)[4] The American Creed: A Spiritual and Patriotic Primer, by Forrest Church, St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
[5]http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/v/vaclav_havel.html
Topics: Story