As we celebrate in the U.S. our national holiday, I’m thinking about what it is we’re celebrating. I’m especially interested in the American Revolution. It figures in my newest time travel novel (hopefully out in 2022). 
What are the fundamental concepts for which this country was founded? America was founded on what in 1776 was a very radical idea — the equality of human beings, and therefore their rights. The Declaration of Independence states it succinctly.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The American Experiment in Fiction
We have to assume, iafter more than 200 years of the American Experiment, that the term “all men” now refers to “all humans”. I believe all human beings are equal in their hearts and souls, and that that confers spiritual rights — “inalienable rights”. If we’re setting off fireworks and picnicking on lawns this July 4, I hope we’re thinking of this more and more, and increasingly treating one another as equals, while history rolls forward.
That’s the premise in my newest time travel novel: that America is continually improving.
In writing time travel fiction, I also have to imagine the future. Because my characters can travel in time, some of them dive into centuries ahead of ours. What will America look like in 2398? That future appeared in my last book, The Time Gatherer. I hope by the 24th century we’ll have figured out more about equality and liberty. And about freedom for our planet from our plundering it for short-term goals, such as driving as fast as possible to the shopping mall.
I hope we’ll have conquered many diseases, probably through gene therapy, but that we won’t use our knowledge to try and engineer a social or economic advantage for this class of human or that one. And I hope this silly idea of war will be long gone.
Yes, I’m an optimist. Are you? What do you think of when you celebrate our 200+ year-old nation?
Let me know what you think freedom and equality mean to you. Happy 4th!
