Robin SmithWhen searching our history books, the lifespan of noteworthy men and women, war campaigns and significant eras are identified with two dates, the beginning and the end (or death, if applicable), separated by a hyphen.
America's birth occurred on the Fourth of July, 1776. She was conceived much earlier through the love, courage and devotion of those who planted the seed of liberty and nurtured it to life, watered both by the blood and tears of patriots. But the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress, representing the 13 colonies, was the moment freedom emerged in the form of an independent nation seeking to fulfill its destiny with a belief in the "firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence."
Yeah, sure. God, country, red, white and blue, "Happy Fourth!"
But what have we done and what are we doing with that hyphen - that fixture of written communication that connotes a span of time signifying a start and finish?
From 1776 through 1790, the American Revolution marked U.S. history with battles to defeat tyranny and imperialism coupled with great thought, debate and writings emerging in our founding documents - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and the Federalist Papers, just to name a few.
The Industrial Revolution coincided with the birth of a new nation needing goods, services and employment from 1760 to 1840 and extended into a second wave of ingenuity, job creation, manufacturing and economic growth.
Manifest Destiny characterized the 1812-1860 decades with a second and third generation of Americans moving outward to expand community and society into the West. Not for the purpose of conquest, this era of explosive movement by a free people was driven by determination, self-reliance and a hunger for opportunity of settlers from the east to the west coast.
The American Civil War followed by Reconstruction from 1861 through almost 1880 was our nation's confrontation with our own humanity coupled with the power of wealth and possession. Sure, the "War Between the States" was about more than just slavery, but the fact is undisputed that the rallying issue of the day was states' rights to determine whether one human could own another as property.
The 20th century came with the Gilded Age of great economic growth, then moved into the Roaring Twenties that held cultural freedoms that broke from tradition and monetary affluence but hit the wall of the Great Depression in the 1930s between world wars.
After World War II, we describe periods of time by characterizing the people born in them; generation names would mark our society rather than events. And so there are those in the Greatest Generation, the baby boomers, Generation X and now the millennials.
Previous generations may be viewed in the span of their hyphen. Some have been fearless and fierce as guardians of American exceptionalism by defending our nation's sovereignty - exposing the forces that destroy authentic liberty - and cultivating its growth. Others choose only to be beneficiaries of liberty and freedom but recoil from the duty to defend or help accurately define America. Sadly, almost inexplicably, there are those who, perhaps due to inner conflict and confusion, stand to destroy our "great land of liberty" that was formed out of immeasurable sacrifice and true patriotism.
On this Independence Day, think about your hyphenated time in America. Are you truly independent or do you choose dependency on an expanding government? What do you do to make America great for you, your family and community?
Robin Smith, a former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party, is owner of Rivers Edge Alliance.