The Meaning of July 4th, Part Three - by David R. Henderson

In my previous two articles on July 4th (1, 2), I said that the meaning of that holiday was gradually being lost. But on July 4th of this year, I participated in our local Monterey parade and found that some of it either hadn't been lost or was being rediscovered.

My friend Lawrence Samuels, an energetic local libertarian activist, sent out an e-mail asking libertarians to show up at the July 4th parade and march with Libertarians for Peace and Code Pink. The last time I marched in a parade was – never. I'm more into watching parades. In high school, I helped organize our freshie day parade but, because I was an organizer, I got to travel in the RCMP car that headed the parade. But, because Lawrence has put so much more energy into libertarian and pro-peace activism than I have, I decided to support him. So I headed off to the parade wearing blue shorts and a red and white shirt. I also carried, to put on at my option, my T-shirt from the Bizet opera Carmen that says on the front, "Free was I born and free shall I die!"

I met Lawrence, and we walked to our assigned spot in the parade. The bad news is that we were the only two libertarians to show up. The good news is that it takes only two people to hold each end of a banner, and Lawrence had brought our Libertarians for Peace banner.

But there was other, much better news. In the slot ahead of us, I saw about five to eight people wearing red, white, and blue and carrying signs with shortened versions of each of the 10 amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. I was pleasantly shocked. What was this group? Perhaps there was a local branch of the Constitution Party and I had been unaware of it. That seemed unlikely; I pay a lot of attention to local politics. Who were these guys and gals who were willing to carry all 10 of the amendments and not just cherry-pick the ones they liked? There was an easy way to find out: ask. I approached one of them and asked what group they were part of. He answered, "We're the local Democratic Party." "Wow," I said, "that's great." I asked, "Are you planning to carry all 10 of the amendments, including the Second?" He smiled, clearly understanding why I asked. "Yes," he said, "if I'm going to support the Constitution, I have to support even the ones I'm not excited about." He introduced himself as Thom Diggins, president of the Democratic Club of the Monterey Peninsula. I gave him a high five. I talked to various Democrats and found myself liking them and not even disagreeing with them about most of the political issues we talked about. For one thing, they seemed more antiwar than most of the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. I told them I was glad that no one was carrying a sign for the Sixteenth Amendment, the one giving Congress the power to impose an income tax.

We also talked about freedom of speech. I told them that I hadn't brought any antiwar signs or "Impeach Cheney" signs because I had understood that such signs would be banned. But some of them had attended the City Council meeting where this had been discussed: some city workers had wanted to ban all political expression from the July 4th parade, but the City Council, in response to citizen outrage, had relented. At those meetings, the Democrats told me, they had learned that pretty much any non-obscene expression was all right. If only I had known.

There was a festive air among all the various groups. I wandered around talking to many of them, including a man dressed up as Groucho Marx. Everyone seemed to understand at some level that July 4th is about celebration, and, just by being in a parade in which they expressed what was important to them, they were celebrating their freedom. Also, and maybe this just reflects where we were in the parade line, I didn't see a huge display of the U.S. military.

When the parade started moving, Libertarians for Peace and Code Pink got in line behind the Democrats with their Bill of Rights signs. I heard someone in their group say, "We've lost one of the amendments." I answered, "We've lost more than one." Then, I realized that she meant that the person carrying the First Amendment had disappeared. A moment later, he came running up and all was well. One of the heartening things was how many people along the parade route applauded for the Bill of Rights.

At various points in the parade, a city official stood by a microphone and announced the various groups going by. When our group showed up, the official announced "Code Pink." I caught his attention and pointed to our sign. He looked at the sign, looked at his list, presumably saw that only Code Pink was listed, and didn't say anything. At the next two announcing points, though, after the officials had announced "Code Pink," I went through the same routine and the official added, "and Libertarians for Peace." One of them went on to announce the subtitle on our sign, "Antiwar, anti-state, pro-market."

At one point in the parade, one man on the sideline saw our banner and said, "The last bastion of free thinking." I gave him thumbs up, and he reciprocated.

Later on, after the parade, something disturbing happened, though. George Riley, a member of the Green Party, which is part of the Peace Coalition of Monterey County, had brought a number of signs, including signs that said, "Bong Hits 4 This Parade" and "Bong Hits 4 Free Speech." He was told by a city official that he could not carry such signs. That was astounding. Here was a low-level city official making major judgments about what kind of speech would be allowed and what kind wouldn't.

Now, you might say that it was kind of silly to bring such signs. Why mention bong hits? But I don't think it's silly. One of the ways to test whether you really have freedom of speech is to push in certain directions and see what happens. I think that's what this person was doing.

One last bright spot. While Lawrence and I were walking from the end of the parade to the picnic at City Hall, I recognized the man in the crowd who had said we were the last bastion of free thought. I went up and said hi, and he said that he had seen Ron Paul on TV and that he was glad people like that were speaking up.

The main lesson I learned was that it makes sense to take the most important pro-freedom U.S. holiday and use it to give a pro-freedom, antiwar message. Next time, I'm going to try to get 10 libertarians out there carrying the Amendments and the "Impeach Bush, Cheney, Pelosi" banners, upping the ante on libertarian expression.