The level of your independence is dependent on things you can't control. Does that mean dependence is the fastest track to independence?
This seems to be the right thing to be thinking about in the days before Independence Day. Of course, individual independence is not what the holiday is about. July 4th is the day we officially declared the colonies to be independent from England.
The reasons we wanted to be independent were many. We were not represented in the government, thus had no say over decisions affecting us. We were expected to be loyal to a king nobody elected. We were expected to run commerce through corporations approved by the king. We were hamstrung economically by these unnatural, forced lines of commerce.
But it took years of dependence on the crown to get to that moment in 1776. If they'd abandoned colonizing by 1700, we might be here, but things would be very different. The colonies weren't the only new world settlements chafing under overseas pressures. France and Spain had colonies on north America that would eventually separate themselves and, in many cases, become one with us.
The independence we celebrate on Sunday really has nothing at all to do with the individual. It's about a nation, removing itself from the clutches of a tyrant, to form its own laws, its own customs, its own economy based on the shared experience and knowledge of its people in good faith.
The freedoms we claim as individuals arose from that simple, single declaration that culminated, after fits and starts, with a constitution and a new nation in 1789. And although we, rightly, declare individual freedoms to be natural gifts bestowed by a creator, the independence we have as individuals are wholly dependent on that constitution.
Try practicing some 1st Amendment freedoms in China or Russia. In those countries and others, exercising freedom is the quickest way to lose your freedom. Freedom of thought, of worship, of expression in many countries just do not exist in most other countries.
Your independence, whatever it might actually be and everyone's varies depending on their circumstance, is dependent on being a citizen of this country. Throw away that dependency and your independence will beat you out the door.
I'm pointing these things out today because too many Americans think Independence Day is about the individual and the freedom we claim. It isn't. It's about the country that makes those things possible, warts and all.
Finally, we can't celebrate Independence Day without paying tribute to one of Eastern Kentucky's great independent thinkers. James Wiley Craft, Whitesburg's long time mayor, passed away this week. Mr. Craft saw a future for his hometown and he did everything he could to make it real. He was a leader who listened, a rare trait in east Kentucky leadership.
No one is perfect and neither was James Wiley. But east Kentucky could sure use a new generation of leaders following in his footsteps who have vision and are willing to let their constituents fill in the colors. Godspeed Mayor Craft!