Not that I’ve ever been Joe Patriot, but I am not feeling the Independence Day spirit this year. Every year since Donald Trump made it into the White House has been awful, but the cognitive dissonance is too much in 2019. I cannot celebrate -let alone acknowledge- that our country threw off the shackles of an unaccountable tyrant when we throw children who have committed no crime in cages.
Here are some people properly celebrating.
Chanting “Never again means close the camps” and “Never again is now,” a group of 33 protesters formed a human chain across Market Street, barring the Mill Creek Fire Company from continuing the procession. Police removed the protesters — wrists pressed against their backs — from the street soon after they sat down in the street.
“We believe this action was necessary because on a day like today, on the Fourth of July — the celebration of freedom and justice in our country — we found it ironic and believe it is abundantly clear that in America right now there are people who are not free, who are not receiving justice, who are not receiving independence,” said Pele Irgangladen, one of the organizers.
I believe that’s my old friend Zoe right in the middle, wearing glasses.
I’m spending the day getting ready for my annual trip to Philadelphia and New England. I have so much to bring: an upright bass, a guitar, an amplifier, a tub of camping equipment, clothing, and more. Later, I’ll be throwing a cheap expensive steak on the grill for my housemate and me -it’s amazing what you can find in the manager’s special section- and probably pickin’ a few tunes out back if the rain lets up.
How are you enduring your freedom?
I don’t know, I find myself feeling the opposite lately. I don’t want to utilize other people’s lives experiences and bodies for my own purpose, but I want nothing more than to fight like hell for what the country was supposedly founded on. Like yes, America, Donald Trump is a repulsive cancer, and he is the embodiment of everything about us that is wrong. Yet I see a great majority of my country not just opposing him, but demanding their leaders start doing some leading or to get out of the way. Donald Trumpism is too popular that is true, but it’s the last gasp of old whites before the next stage of our revolution and founding.
And then I look around at the rest of the world that is similarly being swamped with right wing know nothings, and I feel the most hope in America to be the one to lead the way in vanquishing it. Call it cosplay, but I think it’s worth fighting for, and it definitely inspires weird patriotic feelings. I don’t know how to describe it because I’ve never experienced it before.
However, to answer the actual question of what we (fiancé and I) did: we had plans that fell through and instead went to a dinner/movie place and saw Toy Story 4. Considering I saw the original Toy Story in theaters, it was pretty nostalgic. I needed it. Happy fourth.
very eloquent, thanks!
I get what you are saying when you say “…fight like hell for what the country was supposedly founded on” but as black man Fourth of July is the annual reminder that the country was founded on slavery and people like me were never meant to be a part of it. I agree with Kaepernick; the Betsy Ross flag didn’t represent freedom for me or mine, then or now.
For those like me, we have to blow past the constitution, a racist founding document if ever there was one, and go to the Declaration, e.g. “we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men (not just white men, all men, and women) were created equal and leaving up to the ideals of America has to start there.
I’m not really attached to any of our founding symbols; it’s why I said the next stage of the revolution. There wasn’t just one revolution. There are more “founding fathers” than the slavers and their ilk.
Anyway, as I’ve said, I’ve never been patriotic. These feelings are new to me. I definitely understand the view that the founding of the US is tainted by virtue of its own history and documents. But I’m not about to let Nazis have the country.