Published on Facebook July 8, 2022
Being annoyed at the insanity of the 4th of July has got me thinking.
It used to be about celebrating the existence of the USA. Patriotic and proud of our freedom. With BBQs and parades and a hot summer day off work. To watch TV and hang out with friends and family. To celebrate being an American with baseball, hot dogs, burgers, and watermelon. And watching little kids chase fireflies or play spotlight in the evening.
We didn’t always have enormous fireworks that looked like a professional display in our own yards. We didn’t have as many obnoxiously loud bombs that caused dogs to run away in absolute terror for hours and cause wildlife to panic and die. And most of us had a water hose ready to put out the sparks in the driveway or the street.
If there was a fire, it was because we weren’t warned about drought and we were careless. Now, everybody knows about the fire danger and there’s no excuse.
The big displays lasted an hour and were put on for the whole town to enjoy, at the park or the high school, not just private parties.
We were ignorant to the atrocities at the beginnings of our country, slavery and genocide. The ugly truth about our nation’s history that current politicians are trying to bury again, which just makes it worse. They’ve made the horrors of our nation now front and center. Reminded of it with every silenced teacher. It makes it so much harder to ignore, even for just one day.
Patriotism now has been marketed to the worst people in the country, and flying the flag is now a radical political statement. It didn’t use to be this way.
Our beautiful nation is now not so beautiful anymore. Made so by the very people that are so obnoxiously proud of it. The very people that want only one version of it. That point their finger in your face and accuse you of being something other than an American simply because you want good things. The people that don’t actually understand the Constitution and the fragility of our Nation.
The 4th of July is ruined for me now. Hopefully not forever, but things are going to have to change for the better, for everyone. Everyone.
I want someday to fly the flag proudly because of the good we caused, the wrongs we righted, and the opportunity and freedom we promised. I want my kids to worry about changing the future world for the better, not just getting back to common decency. I wish they could just work for above and beyond decency and the terrible past is completely unrelatable.
I don’t understand why we occupy ourselves with making things more difficult. We have the ability to solve every problem our country has, if we could just get to work. I don’t understand the constant blocking of progress and desire to go back to the worst times in our history. There’s no making us great ‘again’, we were never great.
But we could be.