Submitted by VFP Executive Director, Michael T. McPhearson
Twenty-five years ago today, I was in Washington DC visiting my mother for the 4th of July. Having recently returned from the Iraq War, I was happy to be home with family. We watched a spectacular fireworks display meant to celebrate our country’s triumph over Saddam Hussein, and to welcome me home as part of the returning victorious U.S. military.
I can’t say I was proud, but I was impressed by the array of lights and glad to be there. I also knew that the time for me to leave active duty had drawn near. I had allowed myself to go into harms way for my country once and returned, from what I could tell, unscathed. Unless someone invaded the U.S, I had no plans to do it again. I did not fully agree with U.S. foreign policy, and I would no longer be an instrument in it.
That was very different from ten years earlier, in 1981, when I sat on Tank Hill as a basic trainee and watched what seemed to me like spectacular fireworks in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. It was my first 4th of July as a solider, and I was proud to be there. I had just turned 17 and I felt like a man, ready to “Be All I Could Be,” as I headed into a new adventure. And though I had already begun to question U.S. intentions in the world, I did not contemplate the role I would play as a U. S. soldier. I just wanted to serve.
Here I am today, hopefully a bit wiser after thirty-five years. I no longer blindly celebrate the 4th of July. For a time, the holiday depressed me as I thought about U.S. constant warfare, the inevitable killing of innocents, and repression of domestic civil liberties. Equally offensive is the increasing concentration of wealth, rising xenophobia and indifference to the needs of the poor and working class. I joined the military to give back and support the ideals set forth in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Not to maintain increasing inequality and the growth of bigotry.
Today, instead of feeling down, I am contemplative about how to use my voice as a former soldier to work for peace and justice. I continue to believe in the ideals declared on July 4, 1776. These ideals call for all people to be treated as equals. That we recognize that all people, U.S. American or not, are born with inalienable rights, which include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I continue to believe that governments are instituted to secure these rights and derive their power from the consent of the governed.
I look to the examples of those before me who demanded this nation to live up to these ideals, like Fredrick Douglas, Septima Clark and Martin Luther King Jr. These women and men - with greater and wiser voices than my own - also believed in the promise of this country. They demanded and struggled for it. And we too must struggle today. The urgency of this struggle for liberty is seen in the violence overwhelming our society, the rich holding hostage our economy to enrich their purses, hate cultivated for personal gain, and U.S. endless wars.
And yet in all this human made mayhem, I see my brothers and sisters fighting for what this country can be. Take for example, the Orlando community that came together in the aftermath of 50 people being killed in a mass shooting horror. The LGBTQ community rejected the call of xenophobes and hatemongers to participate in Islamophobia. Or for example the forgiveness the predominately Black church congregants in Charleston, S.C. gave to a young white man filled with hate after he killed nine of their members who had welcomed him in to their church for prayer.
Like the 1963 bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL that killed four little Black girls and injured 22 others, these recent tragedies shocked our nation into further questioning our prejudices against Black people and resentment towards LGBTQ equality.
The spirit of healing is strong and so is the demand and struggle for justice. We can see increased awareness and progress on numerous fronts. Undocumented immigrants have come out of the shadows to demand recognition in the U.S. American fabric. The movement for Black lives has changed the face of police and community relations. It has also forced a new examination of the social and economic relationships between Black and White people, and between the poor, the working class and the rich. Millions have entered the political processes demanding economic and social equality. And the U.S. peace movement is bringing an intersectional lens to the issue of war and the promotion of global peace; understanding that real peace is peace at home peace and abroad.
There is a growing sense that we must work together and recognize the truth of “all people are created equal and have inalienable rights” across all struggles. Otherwise, we will not attain our collective goal of a just and peaceful world. This 4th of July, I rededicate myself to hold my nation accountable to its professed ideals. I do not celebrate the country we are, I celebrate those who struggle for the country we aspire to, and one day will be.