Independence Day, the Four Freedoms, and public servants
They're all related and we should celebrate them together
On Friday, July 4th, America will be celebrating it's 249th anniversary of independence from England, independence from monarchy...the start of "the American experiment."
This Memo is coming a little before the holiday because the role and meaning of "freedom" came to mind a lot; seems like a topic others may want to mull too. As I thought about it, I kept coming back to a time some 85 years ago, when an American president presented a vision of a nation—a world—founded in four fundamental freedoms:
“The first is freedom of speech, and expression—everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.
“The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
“The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt shared that the Four Freedoms were not a “vision of a distant millennium,” but the “basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.”
A lot has happened since Roosevelt's speech, even longer since the Declaration of Independence. Wars and progress, false starts and technological leaps...too many changes to begin to list. But the timelessness of our freedoms, whether those envisioned in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in our Constitution, or the Four Freedoms that Roosevelt articulated, still stands.
Then I thought about how our freedoms are assured. Yes, the Declaration states our move to independence, the Constitution guarantees a variety of rights, and Roosevelt focused our attention on four freedoms of particular salience. But what about the day-to-day work that makes those written or spoken ideals a reality? It's not by magic; it takes American institutions and their people who make our society function. Absent those, we cannot have a society that enables freedoms we enjoy.
At a time when public servants are far too often being demonized, it's critical to remember that public servants are essential for supporting the institutions and society in which we can exercise our freedoms. As just one example, think about the public servants of the Department of the Interior and their contributions. (Of course, these freedoms are not dependent on Interior, just that Interior can facilitate their exercise.)
- Public lands managed by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Fish and Wildlife Service provide places for people to speak freely and express themselves. The National Mall provides space for religious institutions just about every single day. The dedicated public servants of Interior ensure our lands and waters are managed and available, that funding from Congress gets to where it's needed to do the work, that permits are processed to make space for people and the exercise of our freedoms.
- Our public lands provide for our wants and needs. It might be our desire to recreate in a nearby park one weekend, or to take a long vacation to a wildlife refuge far away to witness wildlife and nature; Interior's public servants make these possible. It could be a matter life and livelihood, like in Alaska, where public servants from Interior work to make sure subsistence users have the ability to hunt and fish to meet their needs for nourishment...to see they are free from want. It could be the economic benefits from Interior, like the $55 billion national parks contribute to the economy or the $252 billion of economic activity from BLM-managed lands in 2024.
- To enjoy our public lands for recreation, relaxation, hunting, or other activities, we have Interior's emergency management professionals, wildland fire fighters, safety inspectors for energy production, and park rangers and law enforcement to offer protection and recovery. They are there to lend a helping hand when one is needed, or help ensure people are safe before something happens. The institution and its people make the freedom from fear possible in innumerable ways for Americans and visitors.
The list of ways that public servants - from Interior or other federal agencies, from the Legislative and Judicial branches, from our state and local governments - support our freedoms could go on for untold pages. Suffice to say that we have good reason to celebrate these people who keep society running, including the many ways they help ensure we enjoy our freedoms. So in addition to celebrating Public Service Recognition Week each year, Independence Day seems like a great reason to revisit the contribution that public servants make for us and our freedoms every day.
This Friday, Independence Day, we hope you are able to celebrate our freedoms with friends or family! Those freedoms may be rooted in the Bill of Rights, some may be characterized by the Four Freedoms, some may be from some other basis entirely. Regardless the details, as you think about them, we hope you also think about the public servants of the country who make those freedoms possible each and every day, from Interior and beyond.
Post-script: Especially around this Independence Day for the country, with so many deep divisions across society, we might also remember the advice attributed to President George Washington:
Be Americans. Let there be no sectionalism, no North, South, East or West. You are all dependent on one another and should be one in union. In one word, be a nation. Be Americans, and be true to yourselves.
