America 250: What Unites Us is More Important Than What Divides Us

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Flag Day (June 14) is also the US Army’s birthday. It’s easy to forget the latter since it is both overshadowed by Flag Day and pales in comparison to the pomp and circumstance that accompanies the US Marine Corps birthday celebrations every November. Marines have always had better public relations and snazzier uniforms than the Army, so while as an Army veteran I’m a little jealous, I nevertheless can’t find it in me to be too resentful, since both my late father and my best man at my wedding were Marines.

As we draw near to the 250th birthday of these United States, though, it seems more pressing to reflect on the Army’s birthday as well — and to consider afresh what exactly it is that American soldiers fight for. Fortunately, the US Army has eliminated any doubt with the Soldier’s Creed, which reads in part: “I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.”

But what is “the American way of life”?

Fortunately, our Founding Fathers eliminated any doubt about that as well when they signed and published the Declaration of Independence. While other nations’ ways of life were and are grounded in a common racial and ethnic heritage, the distinctively American way of life is uniquely grounded in a set of common beliefs to which any person of any race or ethnicity could potentially (but does not automatically) adhere: that people possess inalienable rights endowed by their Creator, and that the purpose of government is to secure those God-given rights subject to the consent of citizens.

Yet affirming these beliefs alone is insufficient to secure the rights for which they serve as a foundation. To “establish justice” and “secure the blessings of Liberty” for themselves, the founding generation ordained and established the Rule of Law in the form of the Constitution of the United States – so that authentic government by “The People” would reign. For this reason, the oaths of both Commissioned Officers and of Enlistment contain the clauses, “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same… So help me God.”

Taken together, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the military oath reveal something important about the American experiment. Freedom is not merely inherited. It must also be understood, preserved, and transmitted. Every generation receives a political inheritance it did not create, and every generation must decide whether it will steward that inheritance faithfully or allow it to erode through neglect, confusion, or indifference.

Public discussion often focuses on what divides us. Yet the survival of a constitutional republic ultimately depends upon what unites us. Neither the founding generation nor any generation since have agreed on every question of the day. Yet a shared belief in the principles underpinning “the American way of life” has always made civil discourse and self-government possible.

How can we fittingly honor those who have for 250 years by their actions and who still today affirm by their creed their willingness to leave their families and homeland, to place themselves in harm’s way, and to do violence on our behalf so “that this nation, under God… and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth?”

Fortunately, President Abraham Lincoln eliminated any doubt about that in his Gettysburg Address when he said, “It is for us … to be dedicated here to the unfinished work … [and] take increased devotion … [and] highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.” Or, as the Founders put it, “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence” let our generation increase our devotion to faithfully stewarding for our posterity these blessings of liberty – “So help us God.”

Markus Fish
Newburyport resident

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