(Dobbs) We Can Be Non-Partisan On The Fourth Of July

"America isn’t just a place— it’s a promise."

It can be hard to be non-partisan about just about anything these days. But mindful that the American flag belongs to all of us, and that the Fourth of July is every American’s holiday, today I am reprinting a meaningful essay about Independence Day from a friend, a theologian and lawyer named Mark Vickstrom.

___________________________________________________________________

I love the 4th of July. It's my favorite holiday. Who doesn't like a day dedicated to freedom, fireworks, and firing up the grill?🇺🇸

But it's more than that. There’s something unmistakably powerful about a summer evening sky lit up with exploding stars of color. About families on blankets below, clapping and singing patriotic songs. About the air humming with pride and promise and hope.

For me, the 4th of July isn’t just a celebration of independence— it’s a full-bodied, unapologetic affirmation of who we are and what we strive to become.

Yes, it’s tailgates and toasts, flags waving in the breeze, and kids with sparklers in their hands, eyes wide with wonder.

But beneath the sound of fireworks and patriotic anthems, I always feel something deeper: gratitude.

Gratitude for a nation built not on perfection, but on potential. Not on certainty, but on courage. Not on reward, but on risk.

America was birthed from all three--potential, courage, and risk. And it was anything but easy. It took guts, grit, and a vision that was radical in its time.

The founders weren’t perfect— they were flawed, just like the rest of us— but they believed fiercely in freedom, so much so that they put their lives and property on the line. They saw a world where people could live unshackled from tyranny, where liberty wasn’t a gift from kings, but a right endowed by the Creator. And they made it a reality.

To be American, at its best, means embracing that bold belief: that we are free to live, work, speak, worship, and pursue meaning as we choose, so long as we don't trample on others in the process. Even to fall and fail, and then to get up and try again.

That’s the kind of freedom that doesn’t just create opportunity; it also creates responsibility. It asks us to be strong, not just for ourselves, but for each other. And for the generations to come.

This holiday calls forth a kind of gratitude that feels especially profound— grounded, protective, and reverent. It’s the kind of thankfulness that doesn’t need to be loud, but is deeply powerful and powerfully deep. It shows up in parents teaching kids the value of hard work, in veterans quietly standing at attention during the anthem, in neighbors lending a hand just because it’s the right thing to do.

Gratitude for our country isn’t blind loyalty— it’s clear-eyed appreciation for what we have because we know it can be lost. It’s the recognition that while America has its flaws, it also has a system for rectifying those flaws and doing better. It has a foundation worth preserving, a constitution worth protecting, and a future worth building.

Gratitude is a felt response and commitment to help this nation live up to its ideals, as best we can.

What good is freedom if it doesn’t lead to flourishing? What good is patriotism if it doesn't protect the well-being of the people of our land? On this Independence Day, let’s celebrate the freedoms we enjoy, and let’s use them to flourish and live well.

So here’s to the backyard barbecues, the stars and stripes, the national anthem sung with a lump in your throat. Here’s to the ideals we inherited and the challenges we’ll pass on. Here’s to a country that gives us the space to become our best, and asks us to help others do the same.

Let’s raise a glass this 4th of July, not just for freedom, but for the flourishing of every person lucky enough to call this place home. And let’s remember: America isn’t just a place— it’s a promise. And that promise is still worth believing in.

Happy Independence Day. Live free. Stand tall. Stay grateful. And have fun!

Mark Vickstrom writes about wellness here on Substack.

Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 39-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.

You can learn more at GregDobbs.net