History takes some surprising turns. And as we go through time, we are continually revising our interpretation of historic events. In the first week of July, one doesn’t have to look far to find a wide variety of interpretations of Independence Day and the events of the American Revolution. The Tea Party claims that the American Revolution was an anti-tax movement and claims that their attempts to disrupt legislative action and cut government services are in line with the objectives of the patriots of the American Revolution. They seem to forget that the Sons of Liberty who dumped the tea into Boston Harbor organized as a protest against the monopoly of the East India Company and the effects of unrestrained corporate influence on government. The Sons of Liberty would find it strange indeed to see the unrestrained influence of big money in American politics. How the events of history are interpreted these days, however, varies depending on your political perspective.

Standing in line, as I do, with the Pilgrims and Puritans who left the Church of England in search of religious liberty on the North American Continent, I find it a bit amusing that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is calling for the ringing of church bells on July 4 as a protest against a law that will require preventive services as a part of employer-paid health insurance. Despite the fact that there are Catholic institutions that currently offer health insurance that includes contraception, they see the requirement as a restriction on their religious freedom. The main reason contraception is included in many health insurance plans is that overall claims decrease when contraception is covered by the primary plan.

Regardless of the opinion about the use of contraception and how its costs should be paid, a church like ours might ring our bell on July 4, but if we were to do so, it would be because our members want to ring the bell, not because a council of bishops has directed churches to ring their bells. We see the topic of religious freedom differently than some of our neighbors. The 17 signers of the Declaration of Independence who were members of the Congregational Church all saw freedom from a hierarchical church structure as an essential religious freedom.

Recently I read a short book by Rick Bass that will forever change my perspective on the July 4 holiday. The book, titled, “In My Home There Is No More Sorrow,” is a report of 10 Days that Bass spent in Rwanda. We know July 4 as Independence Day in the United States, marking the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In Rwanda, July 4 is known as Liberation Day: a time to remember being liberated from the abyss of mass murder and the conclusion of 100 days of mourning for the more than 1 million innocent men, women and children murdered during the 1994 genocide. The genocide, fueled and sparked by the overuse of hate radio, demonstrates the power of unrestrained media to lead to unrestrained evil. The scars of that genocide are fresh in Rwanda. Everyone in that country knows someone who was murdered.

Bass reports of his visit to Murambi, where political leaders asked the Tutsis to walk to the nearby technical school for safety. Tens of thousands did so, only to find themselves unprotected. On April 21 the shooting began at about 3:30 in the afternoon and continued until past 11 p.m. Tractors were used to bulldoze the bodies of those killed as well as those injured but surviving into large trenches, where the bodies were covered with lime before being buried by the tractors. The mass grave has now been excavated. The school is now a kind of very unsettling memorial. When Bass visited, he walked through room after room filled with bodies, ghostly white because of the lime. The lime, however, doesn’t cover the smell of death. The bodies, partially preserved by the lime are sorted by size. There is a “Babies’ Room,” a “Toddlers Room” and so on. It is painful to read Bass’ description of the experience. I can’t imagine being able to stomach such a visit. I know it would make me sick.

It is in a place like that where the horror of genocide becomes unmistakably real. Just reading about it makes it impossible for me to celebrate Independence Day without being reminded of the intense cruelty of which humans are capable. For millions of Rwandans it is a day to thinking of relatives – beloved parents, brothers and sisters and others who were mercilessly killed. Every victim never had the opportunity to know the true meaning of freedom. Every victim was deprived of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The rights and freedoms we take for granted are denied to many people in this world. Genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and civilian massacres are not just strange anomalies of history. They are realities being committed this day in various parts of the world. Read the news reports coming out of Syria.

In April, President Obama announced the formation of an Atrocities Prevention Board during a ceremony at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The newly-formed board has been given the task to developing strategies for the United States government to take actions to prevent and intervene to stop mass atrocities. It may well be the most important thing our government can do. If we are to truly enjoy our independence, we must understand that our freedom is linked to the freedom of all people. As long as some people are denied freedom, no one is truly free.

So this Wednesday will be a day off for workers. It will be a day of picnics and celebrations. It will be a day for fireworks for those who live in places that are less tinder dry and prone to fire than our neighborhood. But it is also a day to be reminded that freedom is only a dream for millions of people around the world. It is a day for remembering that innocents are still being slaughtered. It is a day to realize how capable of evil human beings remain. It is a day to recommit to continual work to prevent atrocities. For the rest of my life, July 4 will be a day to stand with the Tutsi survivors in Rwanda in mourning and grim determination that such horror can never again be allowed to occur.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.