Honoring America’s Promissory Note
A Fourth of July message from Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, rightly emphasizes the need for every generation of Americans to engage in thoughtful, informed reflection on, and debate about, our founding principles. His message focuses on the Constitution but, given its timing, it is of course intended to apply to the Declaration of Independence as well. Those magnificent documents contain what Martin Luther King, Jr., memorably referred to as the “promissory note” of equal liberty that all Americans fall heir to and are obligated to work toward in word and deed.
An article I wrote last year is relevant here. Entitled “Canary in the Coal Mine of America’s Future,” it offers a defense of the melting pot ideal inspired by our founding documents. Honoring those documents requires remembering what they actually stand for, which is too often obscured by America’s critics in today’s media and classrooms. In that connection, it is also worth reading “Frederick Douglass Didn’t Hate America, and Neither Should You,” by Angel Eduardo, on the Substack page of the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism.
Heartfelt wishes for a Happy Fourth!