The hands of the clock twirl at a maddening pace, the calendar pages plummet like Autumn leaves, months ending before we fully realized they had arrived. The seasons come, then are gone in what seems like an untimely death. Time has become a blur and the years hurl into ephemera. But once again we’ve made it- another 4th of July, when for at least one day we can forget our differences and divisions and, united, we can celebrate freedom and liberty.

But leave it to me to rain on the parade- more inexcusable in that it’s that parade, the big daddy of them all-the 4th of July Parade, the pride of main streets, watermelon growers, fireworks manufacturers and of course, patriots. But what is a patriot? Can two people antipathetic in their vision and interpretation of history both be patriots? At one time they could, but I’m no longer sure. There are some who are out to destroy democracy in the name of democracy. The few are given the power to ban books without the consent of the many. Parents, many of whom are provincial if indeed not tribal, are determining their children’s curricula, overriding the judgement of teachers and school boards. Certain factual elements of our history must not be taught for fear of wreaking guilt and discomfort on the delicate, innocent children. But, as so often is the case, I stray off subject and wander into the tangential.

Allow me to share a few thoughts, and please bear with me. Suspend the urge to break out the tar and feathers and hear me out to the end.

Our third president, Thomas Jefferson, can be legitimately described as a statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, gentleman farmer and major founder of our republic. That’s quite a resume. It’s what I was taught in grade school a few centuries ago. But human beings as well as countries are complex. The good we do and the evil we do are not mutually exclusive, and, of course, many of us would disagree as to what constitutes good and evil. And with that, let us revisit Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson was one of the largest slave owners in the colonies. He was an oligarch and a statutory rapist (in his forties he sired at least six children with a fourteen year old child slave named Sally Hemings.) All of these children remained in slavery and never were acknowledged as his progeny. He plagiarized much of the Declaration Of Independence, borrowing freely from John Locke and other philosophers. He believed Native Americans were culturally and intellectually inferior to whites and their lands should be forcibly taken away by white settlers. He instituted policies of Indian removal, culminating in the Indian Removal Act later implemented by Andrew Jackson. He believed the native people should be forcibly pushed westward and advocated displacing the Cherokee and Shawnee from their homelands to west of the Mississippi River, violating all treaties with those tribes. The Trail Of Tears ethnic cleansing soon followed, and eventually the effective genocide of native peoples under the aegis of “Manifest Destiny.”

Reality. The Constitution was written by and for white males of property and wealth. Native people, slaves, poor whites and all women – the vast majority of people in the United States- were excluded from this ultimate gentlemen’s club.

Kermit Roosevelt, in his book “The Nation That Never Was,” posits that the true origins of Freedom And Liberty For All began with Reconstruction and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments (women, oh long suffering women, had to wait until the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920 for the right to vote.) Roosevelt also posits that in The Civil War the values of the founders were tightly aligned with those of the Confederacy- states’ rights and slavery.

And yet, The Founders had vision and created a constitution that was fluid and could be amended. Look at what we’ve done in the last hundred years. We defeated Fascism and stopped the Jewish genocide advanced by Adolph Hitler. We’ve fed, defended and given medical aid to people the world over. We have been, or sadly had been, the leader and stalwart of democracy, respected and a protector of other democracies. We’ve done wonderful and noble things as well as absurd and unjust things (the Vietnam War, the invasion of Iraq under false pretexts). And all should be remembered without whitewash, selectivity or revision. The historians’ dilemma is that in the expanse of a single day an infinite number of events transpire. Which events warrant chronicling? All of them that are critical to understanding, without prejudice.

A checkered past need not forge the path of our future. And when I feel my own cynicism get the better of me, I remember that millions of people have, and continue, to risk their lives to be a part of our great but imperfect country.

Let Freedom Ring.