Both Oars In Real Independence

Jul 3, 2009

I was eleven in 1976. The Bicentennial is my earliest memory of a national event. I remember it more clearly than any of my early birthdays.  Everything was red, white and blue. Every commercial was patriotic. Even fashion focused on the flag. Eagles appeared everywhere. The Bicentennial was like a sweet sixteen and a fiftieth birthday rolled into one. On the one hand, the nation was absolutely giddy with excitement about the future.  We were a young nation with tremendous prospects. On the other, we were a middle-aged parent looking back proudly at our national accomplishments.  

 

For me, July Fourth 1976 culminated in an amazing display of fireworks at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum River with antiquarian riverboats in attendance. It was simply awesome. I couldn’t have been prouder or felt more independent.  I didn’t have a care in the world or a thought that was not positive. The year-long, long awaited day was as perfect as the red, white and blue banners that hung everywhere. 

 

But, not every birthday is a time for pomp and loud celebration.  Some inspire a more somber reflection, causing us to rethink our lives, to examine more than just the glorious victories. The circumstances of our nation’s 233^rd  Birthday seem to be one of those occasions.  The current economic situation, unemployment, the wars, and the contentious moral climate do not suggest breaking into song, but taking a quieter look at the health of our independence. Are we indeed free?

 

Quagmired in two wars, we have had to face the reality that we are far too dependent on foreign oil to make truly “independent” political decisions. We produce only ten percent of the world’s oil but consume twenty-five percent.  We will never be independent on this front until we reduce our per capita consumption and increase our investment in alternative and renewable fuels.  Yet, somehow our collective psyche feels freer when exercising the right to drive as big a car as we can than when we remember to turn off the light when we leave a room.

 

We are also too deep in debt to be truly independent.  We owe eleven trillion dollars, one trillion of that to China. While China continues to deny human rights and suck resources out of African nations without contributing to their advancement, we have become nearly mute on the subject.  Our Secretary of State, a woman rarely quiet when it comes to rights, stated without hesitation that pressing the Chinese on human rights issues can't “interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis.”  Evidently, the fact that China is the largest contributor to all three of these crises pales in importance to the fact that they kindly finance our debt.    

 

As liberty has turned into license—specifically the license to consume—we have gone from being a free nation of skinny scrappers and savers into a fat nation of consumers and spenders.  The effects of our overindulgence can be seen in the dramatic increase in childhood obesity and adult diabetes. Each year over one hundred billion dollars is added to health care costs due to our overeating. The extra twenty-five pounds we are caring on average has increased our fuel usage for driving and flying. Some estimate that this adds three billion dollars a year in extra fuel costs for transportation.  We are literally too weighed down to soar freely like an eagle.

 

We have gone from the land of the free to the land of big box stores and zero percent interest. We have more electronic toys to play with in our free time than ever, but we have less free time to use them because we spend more time at work to pay off the credit cards we used to buy these toys.  The average hours we spend at work per year has increased by thirty-six hours since 1990—that is a week more a year.  Although recently credit card debt has fallen and savings rates have climbed, we still seem more burdened than free on account of our unending pursuit of distractions.  

 

We are no doubt still the greatest nation ever.  But, we are more vulnerable and weaker at 233 then we were at 200.  This birthday needs to inspire us to be in better shape for our 234^th and beyond.  It is time to work off the weight we have gained and become a leaner, more resilient, independent nation. It is time to break free of our addiction to consumption and become productive again.  To save is patriotic. There is more freedom in saying “no” than “yes” and more real independence in self-denial than indulgence.