"We Just Can't Stop Being American..."
Which no longer means what they think it means.
For most of my life, the Fourth of July has been synonymous with summer excitement and fun: joyous afternoons at the beach, hot dogs on the grill, patriotic parades, and [of course!] fireworks.
I’m having a hard time mustering up any feelings of celebration this year - not when we have a Federal government that has decided to ignore 249 years of the concepts laid out in the Declaration of Independence, as well as the Constitutional amendments that don’t involve the right to bear arms. They are being aided and abetted by a feckless Congress and a complicit Supreme Court.
Donald Trump’s big ugly bill was passed in the Senate and is on track to reach his desk just in time for the holiday. He may have already signed it by the time you read this. Among its many, many horrors is an ICE budget infusion of over $100 billion over the next four years.
In the meantime, my city is still experiencing an unnecessary military occupation while masked ICEstapo thugs continue ravaging through our neighborhoods, causing the cancellation of Fourth of July celebrations throughout the region. And the government is touting a horrifying open-air Florida concentration camp they’ve nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.” It will cost $450 million annually to operate it.
That money is coming from FEMA.
The due process we were taught was our right has vanished as people being disappeared to third countries without so much as an opportunity to consult an attorney.
Happy Independence Day indeed.
So you can forgive me if I’m not feeling festive right now.
And that’s why this new ad campaign truly rubbed me the wrong way:
The rah-rah, “USA USA” script and imagery are truly tone-deaf while all the things that DID make us great are being ripped away.
The patriotic pandering of “Hey, you just keep on being American” might have been tolerable when our country took pride in combatting poverty, disease, and authoritarianism around the world. But now… this ad is basically a “fuck you” to everyone who once believed in the promise of America.
Yet… as sad, and disappointed, and angry as I feel at the current state of the nation… I will be commemorating Independence Day with family and reflecting on what my immigrant mother used to tell me: that there was no better place to live than the United States. I am profoundly sad that this is no longer the truth, but determined to do whatever I can to get the promise back.
Next Steps
The bill is moving quickly so that there is little time to understand what is actually in it. (Jonathan Larsen of The Fucking News offered a good summary today.)
The most important thing we can do right now is to call our representatives to let them know our anger at their determination to take away healthcare and food from Americans just to give tax breaks to billionaires. The 5Calls app makes it easy.
After that: it’s back to the streets. 50501 is organizing Free America demonstrations throughout the country on July 4, which sounds like a really appropriate way to acknowledge the holiday.
July 17 is Good Trouble Day, on the anniversary of the date we lost John Lewis.
One Last Thing
