July 4th Joy?

If ever there has been a 4th of July in my lifetime to not celebrate, this is the one. Staring me in the face. Celebration? For life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Hardly!

Today, we face censorship, a threat to peaceable assembly, freedom of speech, equal access to education, housing and food. Then there is access to healthcare, too. All under threat. In the land of the free and the land of the brave. 

Today our enemy is ignorance. Today our enemy is vengeance. Cruelty is part of the scene as well. Maybe a little violence as well. Payback time in the minds of too many. Discrimination against others different from you? Is this what we are now living?

If not you, who? If not we, who?

We are a nation of immigrants including our very selves. That is America’s unique history. Unless we are of indigenous people of American soil, we are immigrants. Each of us brings a different talent, idea, energy and value to our midst. This makes for an amazing population capable of reinventing the world. Reinventing the arts, as well. This is the meaning of America in my mind.

Is that what we celebrate on this day? Certainly not the politics. I pray we celebrate the freedom of being ourselves and expressing it in whatever manner. And living it in whole, for the benefit of all.

What we are is more important than who we are. That’s always been our story, our tale in history. The what always trumps the who. I hope that trumps the Trump.

July 4, 2025

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