Turn Independence Day July 4 into Inter-Dependence Day

July 4 has traditionally been a day to celebrate the U.S. and there is much to celebrate in the goodness of this wonderful country, even while acknowledging all of the nation's problems. Yet a focus on what is good in the U.S. too often slips into chauvinist nationalism. So we need to reframe the celebrations this July 3-5 weekend as Inter-Dependence Day, avoiding all the implications of thinking that somehow it is possible to be independent of the global economy, culture or environment. Taking a leap toward recognizing our connection to all other beings does not preclude also celebrating the U.S., but not only celebrating ourselves!

We spiritual progressives invite people of all faiths, as well as the nonreligious, to avoid celebrating "bombs bursting in air" and all other displays of American nationalist chauvinism that imply that we are "number one" and others are lesser. Instead, let us transform the July 3-5 holiday to celebrate our interdependence with all human beings on this planet and our interdependence with the Earth, our badly abused planet.

We invite you to create a celebratory picnic or meal in which you sing songs affirming the humanity of all on our planet, our love not only for neighbor but also for the stranger, the Other (whoever that Other is--because almost every country on earth is "othering" someone or some group, and yet we want to affirm those people, animals, the earth, and even the split-off parts of our inner psyches that we have denied and repressed), the immigrant, the homeless, the hungry both in our own country and around the world. Don't let the July 4^th weekend end up being purely about barbecues, fireworks, and the like. And if you read this from other parts of the world, we invite you to turn your own national holidays into celebrations of interdependence.

We have much to celebrate in the U.S. this holiday weekend. We rejoice at the legalization of gay marriage. I was one of the first rabbis in the U.S. to conduct gay and lesbian marriages, as a way of affirming the equal validity of every caring-for-the-other-based form of loving relationships. The Supreme Court's decision last week was a victory for all of us who want fundamental transformations toward a world of love and justice, and a reminder of a key teaching I've learned from the experience of the Jewish people and the teachings of our Torah: Don't be Realistic. Don't allow the people with power to tell you that your desire for a world based on love and justice and what we call The New Bottom Line is a utopian fantasy (please read our full explanation of this idea at spiritualprogressives.org/covenant).

Just as everyone was telling gays that marriage equality was unrealistic, so they will tell you that the New Bottom Line and the Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (tikkun.org/esra) and the Global Marshall Plan (tikkun.org/gmp) are unrealistic. Sadly, many of the most ethical people come to believe this message and narrow their focus to what they think is realizable in the short run, even failing to articulate to others the vision of the world they really want. But what we learn from the legalization of gay marriages is that:

You never know what is possible till you engage in sustained (decades long) involvement in movements that seek what is desirable and necessary for love, justice, and environmental sanity to prevail.

What is worthy of celebration about the U.S. and other democracies around the world is that these struggles actually have a chance of winning, though not without great effort, sustained inter-generational involvement through decades, commitment of our time and our money and our hearts, and great risks (including going to jail, facing beatings, torture or even death for nonviolent activism).

But we are not only tied to the advanced democracies. Our wellbeing is tied also to the wellbeing of the poor, the hungry, the immigrants, the homeless, the powerless, the oppressed everywhere on the planet. So lets write songs, poems, and tell stories of their lives and their stories as well on July 4th!

And then, lets celebrate this glorious planet earth, even as we mourn for the ways that our global capitalist economy and the values of materialism, endless growth, and "looking out for number one" is systematically destroying the life-support system of Earth. Our interdependence with the earth and its 7 billion people could be a central focus of your July 4th celebration.

And while we are celebrating interdependence, let's expand our celebration to include the powerful vision put forward by Pope Francis in his recent environmental encyclical, and celebrate the wide array of people (particularly younger people) who are becoming deeply involved in activity to save human and animal life on planet Earth.

None of this, of course, frees us from critique of the way racism persists. Taking down Confederate flags may be a nice symbolic move, but as I've shown in my recent article "A Path to End Racism," (http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/a-path-to-end-racism) it will take a comprehensive strategy along the lines I lay out to really make a difference, and in the meantime we should be relentless in pushing forward a vision of a society freed from its racism, and not allow the shallow gestures of President Obama or the Democrats' paltry rhetoric to deflect us from our recognition that people of color are still being subjected to inhumane treatment, denial or rights, and even, as we saw in Charleston last week, murder.

Nor should we forget that it is not only people of color who suffer from the daily impact of the inequalities and environmental destructiveness that are an integral part of global capitalism's current manifestations. Celebrating the good in America gives us the opportunity to celebrate all the movements throughout American history that worked for the well-being of the relatively powerless (including many white people) whose struggles often succeeded in expanding democratic rights and equality, and remember there's still more work to be done. Celebrating the goodness of the American people is part of the best in what spiritual progressives insist upon even while remaining critical of what needs to be changed--namely our refusal to demean anyone, including those who do not yet agree with us, and instead to talk to people in a way that affirms their goodness and highest being, an absolute precondition to get them to listen to ideas about which they would likely be closed otherwise! Seeing what we religious and spiritual folk call "the holy in everyone" does NOT mean silencing our critiques of their ideas, but it does mean making those critiques in respectful and empathic ways!

Let me know what you tried and what works when you invite people to participate in Inter-Dependence Day July 4, 2015, to bring poems and songs and share stories that affirm a universal ethos of love and generosity and caring for each other and the earth as the main focus. Email me atRabbiLerner.tikkun@gmail.com

Rabbi Michael Lerner isEditor of Tikkun Magazine www.spiritualprogressives.org--winner of the Best Magazine of the Year 2014 Award from the Religion Newswriters Association. and co-chair with India's environmental activist Vandana Shiva of The Network of Spiritual Progressives www.spiritualprogressives.org. He is the author of 11 books, including The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right; Embracing Israel/Palestine, and with Cornel West:Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin.