July 4, 2024

Happy Independence Day my dear American¹ friends.

We are very lucky to have this country. Let us always be grateful for it. And let us always remember that good things are created not when people decide they have claims against an institution or a society, but when they have enough love to feel duty towards it. This love is choice, and must come first². I think this is true of the smallest and largest institutions.

I wanted to share a short piece by Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-American poet, which I think of almost every year at this time. Published in 1926, it was an exhortation to his fellow immigrants to be good Americans, though I think the sentiment is applicable to everyone.

I find its language remarkable: “I shall not come with empty hands”, “you were born to produce riches by intelligence, by labor”, “create the useful and beautiful with your own hands”, “that your children may not be dependent on the state for support” — These are not common sentiments when choosing where to live! This was a man who believed in the duties and the reciprocity of the citizen. It concisely captures an ethos that I think we should aspire to.

TO YOUNG AMERICANS OF SYRIAN ORIGIN

By Kahlil Gibran, July 1926

I believe in you, and I believe in your destiny.

I believe that you are contributors to this new civilization.

I believe that you have inherited from your forefathers an ancient dream, a song, a prophecy, which you can proudly lay as a gift of gratitude upon the laps of America.

I believe you can say to the founders of this great nation, "Here I am, a youth, a young tree whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon, yet I am deeply rooted here, and I would be fruitful."

And I believe that you can say to Abraham Lincoln, the blessed, "Jesus of Nazareth touched your lips when you spoke, and guided your hand when you wrote; and I shall uphold all that you have said and all that you have written."

I believe that you can say to Emerson and Whitman and James, "In my veins runs the blood of the poets and wise men of old, and it is in my desire to come to you and receive, but I shall not come with empty hands."

I believe that even as your fathers came to this land to produce riches, you were born here to produce riches by intelligence, by labor.

And I believe that it is in you to be good citizens.

And what is it to be a good citizen?

It is to acknowledge the other person's rights before asserting your own, but always to be conscious of your own.

It is to be free in thought and deed, but it is also to know that your freedom is subject to the other person's freedom.

It is to create the useful and the beautiful with your own hands, and to admire what others have created in love and with faith.

It is to produce wealth by labor and only by labor, and to spend less than you have produced that your children may not be dependent on the state for support when you are no more.

It is to stand before the towers of New York, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco saying in your heart, "I am the descendant of a people that builded Damascus, and Biblus, and Tyre and Sidon, and Antioch, and now I am here to build with you, and with a will."

It is to be proud of being an American, but it is also to be proud that your fathers and mothers came from a land upon which God laid His gracious hand and raised His messengers.

Young Americans of Syrian origin, I believe in you.

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The picture is Betsy Ross making the first flag, copy of a painting attributed to Frank McKernan, circa 1900

1. According to the Substack stats, 52% of my subscribers are American.

2. Or as the fairytales put it: The princess kisses a frog, and creates the prince.