Patriotism that heals communities

Across the United States on the Fourth of July, communities will gather to mark Independence Day with dazzling displays of pyrotechnic beauty. Yet the real light of American liberty and patriotism shines elsewhere – in salving the fireworks of political and social division with the same ideals that drove the 1776 revolution.

One place to find that glow is Akron, in northeast Ohio. Last year, a week before the July Fourth holiday, a Black resident named Jayland Walker was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop. The incident aggravated racial tensions, leading officials to cancel the city’s Independence Day celebrations for the sake of public safety.

A year later, this community of 200,000 residents offers a model of the slow, hard work of reconciliation – and, because of the tragedy’s proximity to the Fourth, a measure of the unique bonds and sacrifices of American patriotism. It is a city not changed but changing, drawn into unresolved conversations about unity by what Deputy Mayor Clarence Tucker calls “the imperative of dignity and respect.”

As has happened in other cities faced with similar incidents, Mr. Walker’s death has resulted in vigorous legal activity. In April, a state grand jury found no cause to indict the eight officers involved. Mr. Walker’s family brought a $45 million lawsuit against the city for damages.

Within Akron, however, residents are feeling their way beyond adversity. City and private leaders have held public meetings and prayer circles to engage business leaders and school officials, interfaith clergy and health practitioners, police officers and ordinary citizens.

The goal, says Robert DeJournett, a resident pastor helping to forge those dialogues, “is not to be dissuaded or persuaded one way or another, but really listening with a healing heart. That’s what folk need – not just to be tolerated, but really heard, to have their perspective be considered.”

That process reflects what Steven B. Smith, a professor of political science and philosophy at Yale University, calls the “evaluating and ennobling” currency of American patriotism – which, he wrote in a 2021 book, “at its best does not rely on indoctrination but on teaching and supporting the virtues of civility, respect for law, [and] respect for others.”

Deante Lavender, pastor of The Remedy Church in Akron who is working with Jewish and Islamic leaders in the city to promote community healing, describes that work this way: “We are coming together to gain a relationship to figure each other out, so that when it’s time to come together, we don’t have to figure each other out.”

American patriotism has deep roots and many branches, from its Indigenous people to recent immigrants. It ranges from George Washington crossing the Delaware to 9/11’s first responders working valiantly. One historic immigrant, John Winthrop, described the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 this way: “We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.”

At a time when polls show Americans faltering in their trust of one another, the residents of Akron show that the work of liberty goes on.