What Happened to the Fourth of July Speeches?

The Fourth of July is this weekend, and people all over the country look forward to the fireworks.

Fireworks on the National Mall, WhiteHouse.gov

But what about the speeches? 

We all learned in school about Frederick Douglass' Fourth of July speech ("What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?"). Douglass reminded his audience that, whatever the Fourth of July meant to them, the slave still lacked freedom. 

But Fourth of July speeches were once common. Speakers all over the country gave patriotic speeches every year. 

As recently as my youth (in the 1960's), the common practice was that a local band would give a concert on the field, with a politician or local war hero to follow up with a patriotic speech. This practice has largely died out. Although some communities still have the band concert, the Fourth of July speech seems to have vanished into history. I do notice that Sioux Falls plans to have a Fourth of July speech. Good for them!

What we are missing when we skip the speech is to share communal values. Fireworks show us that we are celebrating something important, but the fireworks show does not remind us what we are celebrating. Ceremonial speeches, like Fourth of July speeches, are part of the glue that bind us together. Losing that glue may well lead to our feeling more divided and more polarized, as we lose sight of the ties that connect us to one another as members of a diverse, but vast, nation.