"Nothing of importance happened today."

On my calendar I wrote these words attributed to King George which he is reputed by some to have entered in his journal on July 4, 1776.

Of course, some say he never kept a journal. I am pretty sure though, that he was not aware of what was happening across the ocean in his empire.

What would follow would contradict his impression of no importance. There would be a long and bloody war of independence and the emergence of a new federation of sovereign states who would evolve into one nation of states with one Constitution and a ground-leveling Bill of Rights.

That nation would have to fight many wars to secure her independence and would emerge as a leader on the stage of world communities.

Happy birthday, America! The document, whose signing we celebrate today, means something. It was not just a letter of divorce sent to a King overseas who commented on the un-importance of the day. It was the beginning of a unique experiment that introduced radical ideas and revolutionary notions of equality and democracy. So radical were these ideas, that the founders did not completely understand their implications, nor were they willing to put them into practice.

In Randy Spark's "Just Americans," he sings, "On September 11, we became just Americans," – no hyphens, no qualifications, no party, no divisions of any real substance. We were one people united in love for country and for one another. That is the America I love where we celebrate our diversity and unite around enduring principles.

This in no ways diminishes the uniqueness of each person's or family's cultural and historical heritage or struggles. Many have been victims or have suffered because of distortions in the American dream and the bigotry of people who did not apply our values universally. We are collectively about those struggles, those injustices, those groping attempts to find our way as a people. We are about the conflicts and how we have resolved them. We own the skeletons in our closets. We acknowledge our faults. We realize we can do better. We understand that we have not yet arrived at our best.

But the dream and the principles are dynamic. They are defined by what they are and not just how they have been lived out.

Happy Birthday, America. May you always lift your lamp beside the golden door. May you always provide a home for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Such were my people who came to these shores and found a home and an opportunity hundreds of years ago. May you always value freedom and dignity. May your manifest destiny be the fulfillment of your highest ideals that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights. Happy Birthday America and Americans. May we become all the good that we can be among the community of nations.

Among many renditions is this Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor choral treatment.

The text, The New Colossus, defines who we are becoming, who we have been, and how we have come to this place as much as anything:

   – Emma Lazarus

Happy 4th to all of you! We wear this stuff on our shirt sleeves – right or left, no matter what party or ideology, when it comes to expressing our love of country, Americans are irrationally exuberant (to steal a phrase). And I am right there! Celebrate!!!