By Butch Freedman
I woke up today with a knot in my gut. Still groggy, I wondered where it was coming from, then realized, today is July 4th. I’ve come to hate this day. Sorry if that offends you. It’s how I feel and I get to have my feelings. I’m (sort of) happy for you if you really dig the Fourth and all its hoopla and expressions of “patriotism.” Wave those flags, brother. But for me it all rings false. And it didn’t start with trump. Though, he for certain has brought it to a new low—an abysmal low. An unprecedented, confusing, evil low. But for me, my distaste for the day began back in the sixties, and Vietnam, and then Nixon. Maybe I wasn’t paying much attention before that. But once I opened my eyes to the base nature and racism and corruption prevalent in much of our government circles, I could no longer buy into the phony love of country that so many of my fellow citizens seemed okay with.
My gut is not likely to unclench the rest of the day. I’ll go to the parade, but only to support my neighbors and because the kids on their crepe-papered bicycles are cute. But after that, the picnics and especially the (illegal) fireworks, I’ll take a hard pass. Spoil sport, you say. Maybe so. But I’m not trying to stop anyone else from doing their thing. Though, of course, I’d give my next social security check to anybody who could put a stop to the bozos setting off munitions on the beach. Awful, careless, people do that.
The holiday feels even more corrupted this year, with the adjacent 250-year celebration. The one that, as most everything else this year, is being exploited by trump’s need for self-promotion, bluster, and prancing idiocy. He’s made the Fourth into a testament to corruption of the very documents that he and his misguided defenders pretend to honor — the Declaration of Independence and the 1st amendment. The bewigged prez in one of his many mutilations of the language and of the soul of this union, stated that “we rule by common sense.” Forgetting the fact that common sense and trump are as distant as sardines and whales, he also should be told that no one ‘rules’ here—they govern. But, of course, none of the people in his menagerie of sycophants has the guts to correct him in any way or on any issue. They smile and applaud, but what truly goes on in their dark brains? Are they, like me, eagerly waiting for the king’s quick demise so they can move on or back to normalcy? All of it puzzles and sickens me. But I will stay in the conversation and stay with the resistance. And do whatever I can to bring down the tyrants.
Wouldn’t it be something if next year we all could be okay with flying the flag and celebrating the Fourth of July?
