Yearning to Breathe Free

It’s Fourth of July. Our most patriotic day – the signing of the Declaration of Independence – is our nation’s birthday. Two hundred thirty seven years. Compared to other illustrious countries, we are still a young nation. Independence. Freedom. Liberty. These ideals are what make the United States of America a great country. People all over the world still clamor for her shores, clamor for liberty and yearn to breathe free.

My father is American-born Irish. My mother is Hawaiian-born Portuguese. One people came to this land because they were hungry…for food. The other was hungry…for freedom. One staple to grow in body, the other to grow in spirit. As necessary as food is to the body so is liberty to the soul. The liberty to pursue that happiness that is one’s own.

I am going to listen to Ray Charles’ America the Beautiful and Whitney Houston’s incomparable Star Spangled Banner today. When I listen to these beautiful songs, memories of my childhood and the events that connect me to the people of this country come to mind. My mother remembers Pearl Harbor, my father the Berlin air drops. A generation or more remembers where they were November 22, 1963, I was too young. I remember when Robert Kennedy was shot, the POW’s released, when Nixon resigned and the seemingly unending Watergate hearings.

Closer to home, I remember Patty Hearst, Zebra killings, Zodiac, Jim Jones, and that fateful day in November 1978. I remember the “Catch” and Joe Montana, St. Mary’s last great football victory over Santa Clara in 1985 and Loma Prieta.

I remember 9/11.

I remember the sacrifices of our Armed Forces in conflicts past and present. I remember and admire the work done by countless people who serve our communities tirelessly, selflessly and anonymously. I am puzzled, however, at the slow and acrimonious machinations of our elected officials. Yet despite her flaws, despite a history where she was guilty of shackling the liberty of even her own and of numerous other grave shortcomings, America still breathes free -- she might suffer from a little COPD or some other breathing problem -- but this heart of liberty still beats.

I hope America continues to “hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal” and as we face a future of severe divisiveness, I pray that we will remember that this country was “conceived in liberty” and keep in mind Thomas Jefferson’s words: It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

Have a nice 4th, everyone.