Today’s something extra is lagniappe for the Fourth of July.

A Brat

I was an Air Force brat. If you think that the word “brat” makes that a self-deprecating statement, you are mistaken.  Other military brats know what I mean. When asked the question, “Where did you grow up?” a military child typically can’t answer with a single state, so they describe a state of affairs.

I don’t know why “brat” became part of the description. Perhaps because many military kids moved so much that they had trouble assimilating – seemed standoffish, a bit aloof. Particularly the introverts. Shyness looks that way sometimes.

Whatever the origin  of the term, as a military brat, the Fourth of July has always been a particularly poignant occasion for me. My dad spent most of my childhood in a position dedicated to the protection – by force, if necessary – of “the American way of life.” As a kid and as an adult, I’ve thought a lot about what that means.

An American

This picture is part of the ceiling of the Grand Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. I chose it as lagniappe for the Fourth of July because I hope that when the smoke from the fireworks drifts away and the last echos of the Sousa marches fade, we continue to celebrate that, as Americans, our freedoms are founded upon knowledge as much as upon courage.

I’m glad that I’m an American – a citizen of a country that values above anything else the right of its people to make choices.

But I also believe that people should make choices intelligently. To do that, they must have knowledge. The Founding Fathers knew that. Thomas Jefferson knew it – that’s why when the original Library of Congress was destroyed by the British during the War of 1812, he donated a collection of books he had spent 50 years amassing to replace it.

A fundamental feature of the American system is that choices, once made, must regularly either be changed or reaffirmed. If you discover that you didn’t have the knowledge to intelligently choose, you get the chance to correct it.

Knowledge, the intelligent exercise of choice, and the opportunity to change your mind – that’s what it means to be an American.

Happy Fourth of July, folks!

Dan