July, July!

We watch fireworks on the lawn outside of the old capitol building to celebrate the 4th of July. On the 5th of July.

The Iowa City jazz festival is in full swing. Food trucks. Jazz musicians. The town gathers downtown. And then bam! A fireworks display begins at 9:30 above the Pentacrest lawn. Boom! My children are mesmerized. Flash! The town is mesmerized. I suppose I am mesmerized too.

Bam.

***

Fireworks remind me of patriotism.

Oscar Wilde wrote that patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

My friend Mark Kissling is a Social Studies educator at Penn State. He’s good friends with Bruce Springsteen. You know, the boss. Here’s Mark talking with Bruce about patriotism. Here’s an article Mark wrote about democratic patriotism. Mark is smart. Mark worries that authoritarian patriotism is driving the direction of the United States. Authoritarian patriotism reminds me of nationalism.

Charles de Gaulle led the free French against National Socialism. He wrote that patriotism is when your love for your own people comes first and that nationalism is when hate for people other than your own comes first.

Matthew was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus who recorded things that Jesus said and did. According to Matthew, Jesus said to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

I’m not often surrounded by people who love their enemies. I wish I were. Loving my enemies and praying for those who persecute me remains one of the most radical challenges I can imagine taking up in my life. It is peace instead of war. It is light instead of darkness. It is love instead of hate. It is something worth celebrating.

Boom.

***

So I’ll watch some explosions on July 5th to celebrate July 4th. Me, my family, and the rest of Iowa City. And I’ll be reminded that, despite all the contradiction and ambivalence, buried somewhere in the psyche of my people is a commitment to democracy. And democracy is about people being equal, people sharing power, and people not persecuting each other. More importantly, I’ll remember that I’m challenged to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me. In this way, I have no enemies. In this way, I live in service of something altogether different than nationalism and patriotism. I move in agreement light, difference, and love.

Again, that’s something worth celebrating.

Flash.