Curtis Harris
An impression from the Fourth of July
By Curtis Harris
My wife and I celebrated the Fourth of July holiday this year by picnicking on the Capitol Mall and watching the annual fireworks display. We arrived early to lay claim to a good location. It was a great opportunity to observe our fellow Americans as the crowd gathered to celebrate America's birth and our freedom.
The people surrounding us impressed me. You might assume the diversity of the crowd got my attention. Given the current emphasis placed on diversity in our society, that assumption is partially correct. After all, differences between groups of people in American society are the focus of public policy, political strategy, journalism, marketing, and so on to include most aspects of American life. Of course, diversity is good. Anytime there is work to do, problems to solve and organizations to build, a wide variety of experiences, knowledge, and opinions are valuable. People that limit their worldview to that available from their family/ethnic/social/economic/etc. group should qualify for handicapped parking.
Picture a large tree with leaves of all different sizes, shapes, and colors. The leaves are like snowflakes. No two are the same in every detail, but they all share various levels of common characteristics. The crowd on the Capitol Mall was like that — all sorts of diversity — all part of the same tree.
Diversity alone did not get my attention that day. I saw all of these different people flying the same flag and celebrating the same freedom. That sight impressed me. I felt a bond to all of those strangers because we were all American citizens sharing in the freedom and promise of a great country. The tree of this nation is not just made of diverse leaves. It has branches, large and small, and one solid trunk rooted in hallowed ground by the sacrifice of previous generations. All Americans share values and a common heritage through those branches. Our values and heritage flow from the trunk and roots that make up the foundation of this country.
My experience on the Fourth of July refreshed me. The media attention focused on the two recent Supreme Court decisions served to emphasize the degree to which group identities and agendas seem to dominate American life today. We should all spend some time with the trunk of our national tree and its roots in hallowed ground. That trunk and its roots depend on all of us leaves for their sustenance.
By the way, the fireworks were awesome!
© Curtis Harris
My wife and I celebrated the Fourth of July holiday this year by picnicking on the Capitol Mall and watching the annual fireworks display. We arrived early to lay claim to a good location. It was a great opportunity to observe our fellow Americans as the crowd gathered to celebrate America's birth and our freedom.
The people surrounding us impressed me. You might assume the diversity of the crowd got my attention. Given the current emphasis placed on diversity in our society, that assumption is partially correct. After all, differences between groups of people in American society are the focus of public policy, political strategy, journalism, marketing, and so on to include most aspects of American life. Of course, diversity is good. Anytime there is work to do, problems to solve and organizations to build, a wide variety of experiences, knowledge, and opinions are valuable. People that limit their worldview to that available from their family/ethnic/social/economic/etc. group should qualify for handicapped parking.
Picture a large tree with leaves of all different sizes, shapes, and colors. The leaves are like snowflakes. No two are the same in every detail, but they all share various levels of common characteristics. The crowd on the Capitol Mall was like that — all sorts of diversity — all part of the same tree.
Diversity alone did not get my attention that day. I saw all of these different people flying the same flag and celebrating the same freedom. That sight impressed me. I felt a bond to all of those strangers because we were all American citizens sharing in the freedom and promise of a great country. The tree of this nation is not just made of diverse leaves. It has branches, large and small, and one solid trunk rooted in hallowed ground by the sacrifice of previous generations. All Americans share values and a common heritage through those branches. Our values and heritage flow from the trunk and roots that make up the foundation of this country.
My experience on the Fourth of July refreshed me. The media attention focused on the two recent Supreme Court decisions served to emphasize the degree to which group identities and agendas seem to dominate American life today. We should all spend some time with the trunk of our national tree and its roots in hallowed ground. That trunk and its roots depend on all of us leaves for their sustenance.
By the way, the fireworks were awesome!
© Curtis Harris
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