Striving Toward a More Perfect Union

I remember celebrating the US bicentennial when I was in sixth grade. There was a workbook at school with all sorts of bicentennial stuff to read. Our neighborhood held a parade, and there’s a picture of me on Mom’s horse, Poco Biernatt. His reins are festooned with red, white, and blue pompoms, while red and blue streamers fall from my white-sheet-covered shoulders. The bicentennial was a big deal, and it felt—at least to my young self—like everyone was on board.

This summer’s 250^th anniversary celebration feels painfully different. As a nation, we are terribly divided. Official commemorations are focusing on divisive themes and literal fights instead of what could bring us together as a diverse nation. Perhaps that’s because that “more perfect union” is no longer a virtue these days, or even a goal.

That phrase, a more perfect union, comes from the preamble of the US Constitution. It speaks to founding hopes for bringing together what was already a disparate group of colonies into something resembling a single nation.

It wasn’t an easy task. New England was full of hardscrabble individualists, with rocky small farms, dense forests, and lots of fishing and whaling. Its colonies had mostly been founded on puritanical values, and its people resisted English control. In stark contrast, the southern colonies had developed large plantations using enslaved labor. They retained a strong connection to the English establishment, including the English church. The middle colonies had cultivated cities and an increasingly diverse economy, based in farming, livestock, manufacturing, and trade.

I can imagine that back in 1776, it often seemed impossible to get all thirteen colonies to agree on what this new nation would look like. Stories, songs, and musicals have been written about that struggle and those times. It has me wondering what stories and songs will be written about this era in US history. If they’re anything like the rash of razor-sharp memes about the green reflecting pool, they’ll be memorable but not exactly something to celebrate.

So, what are we to do? Perhaps because I’m an editor, I’ve found myself thinking about the intention to form a more perfect union—in contrast to a perfect one. Our founders evidently understood that they were striving for an ideal that hadn’t come to fruition. They were working toward something that might not even be attainable. Perhaps they already saw the pattern of “three steps forward, two steps back” that would come to characterize this country. And of course, not all their ideals were life-giving for every person and creature on this continent. Even our understanding of what constitutes an ideal America has changed over time.

The reality of US history is a story of constant change and transformation. Sometimes this has been painful, such as during the Civil War. Sometimes it’s been hopeful, such as with the passage of the Voting Rights Act and Marriage Equality. And sometimes we just can’t see where it’s going—yet.

So, as we head into Independence Day weekend and its attendant celebrations, may we realize that we are still forming a more perfect union. Let us celebrate that intention, not the current reality of division.

What are you doing to support the life-giving ideals on which this nation was founded?