The Fourth of July on the lake is always fun. The town of Coventry sponsors a spectacular fireworks display the week before, and during the week after the fireworks, lake residents prep up their properties for the holiday, displaying bunting on their docks and decks and hanging signs somewhere on the property that tell how many years they have lived on the lake. Boats are decorated for the noon-time boat parade. which begins on the sandbar. Watercraft decorations abound with flags, balloons, and excited children. We have multiple costumed Uncle Sams captaining their vessels, and others position LADY LIBERTY (Mother of Exiles) proudly standing in the bow of the boat reminding us of the highest of honored national callings:
Our national calling, pressed into brass, is "The New Colossus" created by Emma Lazarus.
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she
With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"
So upset and discouraged over the state of our nation, the ugly reality of the lamp not being lifted, Lois and I will not participate this year. The woman with the torch no longer seems mighty and our nation glows not with world-wide welcome but rather a hatred and an obvious loss of empathy for the tired and poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the homeless and tempest-tost. The light in that lamp has been snuffed out.
Robert Reich wrote an insightful piece for his Substack this morning titled: Trump, Musk, Republicans, and the Empathy Bug; The real crisis we are living through (July 1, 2025)
He wrote:
Polls tell us that many of today’s Americans worry that the nation is losing its national identity. Yet the core of that identity has never been the whiteness of our skin, the uniformity of our ethnicity, or the commonality of our birthplace.
Our core identity as Americans — the most precious legacy we have been given by the generations who came before us — consists of the ideals we share and the obligations we hold in common. We are tied together by these empathic meanings and duties. Our loyalties and attachments, guided by empathy, define who we are.
If we are losing our national identity, it is not because we are becoming blacker or browner or speak in more languages than we once did. It is because we are losing the ties that bind us together, our collective empathy.
Musk and Trump typify what has gone wrong. Their most damaging legacies may be the erosion of the trust and empathy on which our society — any society — depends.
In addition to the above, we have a President who, in the words of his biographer, Seth Abrahamson, has no clue what the Declaration of Independence means: “He 100% has no idea what the Declaration of Independence is…
On Tuesday (May 2, 2025), President Trump sat down with ABC News' Terry Moran for his first broadcast interview since his second presidential inauguration in January, for an event to mark his first 100 days in office.
During the interview, Trump showed Moran around the Oval Office, pointing out a copy of the 1776 Declaration of Independence which announced the original 13 colonies were breaking away from the British Empire.
Referring to the document Moran asked, "what does it mean to you?"
The president replied: "Well it means exactly what it says, it's a declaration, it's a declaration of unity and love and respect and it means a lot and its something very special to our country."
Huh? Always despicable – now a dunce too! No clue, indeed! “It’s a declaration of unity, love and respect …”
Who does not remember and revere these words?
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--
Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, wrote the following:
In Chaos & Cruelty: 10 Compounding Assaults on Human Rights, Amnesty International reviews President Trump’s attacks on domestic and international human rights in his first 100 days in office. From suppressing dissent to demonizing and targeting immigrants, to retreating from multilateral bodies that protect human rights around the world, the Trump administration has been systematically eroding human rights protections, fostering a climate of fear and division, and undermining the rule of law.
“One hundred days into his second term, President Trump has led with cruelty and chaos, creating a human rights emergency that has affected millions of people by suppressing dissent, undermining the rule of law, and eroding norms and institutions essential to the protection of human rights,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “The Trump administration has fully embraced authoritarian tactics more commonly associated with repressive leaders to silence and punish those who disagree with him, while weaponizing the government against people and institutions in the United States and beyond to entrench his own power and further an anti-rights agenda.”
With such an authoritarian (tyrannical) and anti-rights agenda, it is not surprising that Trump displayed no understanding of the meaning of the Declaration of Independence.
In contrast, Jacob G. Hornberger, (in 2008 and updated in September 2021) wrote a very helpful article. In it he writes:
… the real significance of the Fourth of July lies in the expression of what is undoubtedly the most revolutionary political declaration in history: that man’s rights are inherent, God-given, and natural and, thus, do not come from government.
Throughout history, people have believed that their rights come from government. Such being the case, people haven’t objected whenever government officials infringed upon their rights. Since rights were considered to be government-bestowed privileges, the thinking went, why shouldn’t government officials have the power to regulate or suspend such privileges at will?
The Declaration of Independence upended that age-old notion of rights. All men — not just Americans — have been endowed by God and nature, not government, with fundamental and unalienable rights. Governments are called into existence by the people — and exist at their pleasure — for one purpose: to protect the exercise of these inherent rights.
. On the Fourth of July we celebrate the patriotism and courage of those English revolutionaries who were willing to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor in defense of the most revolutionary declaration of rights in history — that man’s rights come from God and nature, not from government.
I wonder where his advisors from the White House Faith Office have been while Trump and his cronies have withdrawn rights that were self-evident and conferred by God, and disregarded those truths about all men/women and children being created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —
How could anyone who believes in God and/or are followers of Jesus be so cruel toward those whom God wishes to protect and welcome to an empathic country, one of opportunity, justice, compassion and community?
I am reminded of a couple of lines from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, where Paul presents a Christian ethic in reply to those demanding observance to the law. In the midst of the calamitous, Paul speaks with clarity and conviction:
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,[c] but through love become enslaved to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5: 13-14, NRSVU)
Please read that again:
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5: 13-14, NRSVU)
And while we ponder that compelling thought, let us remember the story as well from the Gospel narrative:
28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12: 28-31, NRSVU) (see also Matthew 22: 34-40; Luke 10:25-28)
Perhaps I might paraphrase the final observation made by Jacob Hornberger?
On the Fourth of July we celebrate the patriotism and courage of those English revolutionaries who were willing to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor in defense of the most revolutionary declaration of rights in history — that man’s rights come from the God we love with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength and are bestowed upon our neighbors, whom we love as deeply as we love ourselves and serve with compassion and generosity.
MAY WE ALL THINK OF THESE THINGS THIS FOURTH OF JULY.