It Is Just Different…
By Ron Signore
Thursday is Independence Day. Growing up, it was a holiday that included barbeques with good sides, fireworks, and an attitude of excitement towards the birthday of our country. As an adult, it added the benefit of a day off, always with a hope the 4th landed on a Friday or Monday to drive a long weekend. Like it or not, we have all been indoctrinated to a nationalism like pride for our country from an early age, and there were benefits on top of that pride in our country.
The past few years have drawn a different set of feelings. Obviously, the pandemic was unique with quarantines and fears of gathering risking the spread of COVID. Many celebrations were smaller in gathering, more spread out, and in some cases, cancelled festivities to adhere to the caution. In 2021, the pandemic was still very present, though cautions had relaxed a little with the emergence of the vaccine. It also presented the wedge of those who were pro and anti-vaccine. The politization of the vaccine caused nothing more than hate and spite for whatever action one took by their right. Let’s face it, we hated the ignorance and carelessness actions of those who hung their hats on the denial of the vax and general caution of a mask. As COVID continued, it only got worse.
Despite the misconceptions or misinformation on how to proceed with COVID precautions, things have slowly gotten more like normal socially. Kind of. Many gatherings very clearly saw a divide in crowds, maybe not always equal, but those who trusted and took the vax compared to those who didn’t. Nonetheless, festivities like parades and firework shows continue to get back to the perception we all grew up with as the 4th of July had as it come around.
This past weekend, like many years in my life, I spent the weekend at Deer Creek for Dave Matthews Band. A general event and gathering that brings some hours of peace and good feelings by forgetting the world outside of the amphitheater for a while. Stereotypically, fans of DMB are more left in view. As a matter of fact, we were at the show a couple years back that Roe V. Wade was overturned, and Dave Matthews, a father of daughters, spoke his mind to the results of that landmark infamous decision. With that leftist outlook, there is typically still pride in the freedoms our country provides. A stand-up notion against those who deny inclusivity and tolerance. An American pride, nonetheless.
We still tend to discuss topics that are becoming less taboo in politics amongst us. I found myself hearing things that really made me think. One female had mentioned that they do not even want to celebrate the 4th of July this year. Why should she? All the progress we have made as a country, including freedoms and rights around being pro-choice, have been found in a vacuum of reverting back in time. We have found ourselves adapting to the primitive world of the Evangelical Christians and their agenda, ironically taking away rights and extending government overreach. I really questioned this concept of unorganized, solo act of protest.
Then, I thought about it more carefully. First, it is their right to celebrate or not celebrate as they see fit. It isn’t my place to defend our country, especially in the current state it is in, for those who are seeing frightening signs of a dangerous direction we could be heading towards. Day by day we have seen the growth of narrow-mindedness among us. We are no longer celebrating the strength of our country compared to all others across the world. We are instead fighting ourselves internally over what has clearly become two countries. One country being that of which the progress has impacted, and the other being the resistance of progress, hoping American will be what it once was. The problem is that it was once a segregated nation. It was a white dominated nation, infuriating those with darker skin, gender, sexual orientation, and non-Christian based religions. The bigots that call themselves patriots are desperately looking to hold onto that white dominance. That male superiority.
They will cry out, “America…Love it or leave it.” The problem is America isn’t what they view it to be. America to them is what it was before we truly practiced freedom and liberty for all. They will insert religion into these arguments to what our way of life should mimic, yet they are the biggest hypocrites as to how they actually act. Despite our separation of church and state, the ignorant dig their heels in and press the matter this is a Christian nation. However, they lean right. They despise the free-thinking liberal minded people because they are more tolerant of religious freedoms our citizens can have. The irony is that the Christian way of life clearly aligns more left. Take care of the poor, be kind to others, really anything they preach as being Christian, they only apply to those of choice. Not everyone.
There is a reality that this is the last Independence Day as we know it. As we have slowly crept towards dangerous lows and lack of inclusive rights or freedoms, November could be where it goes over the edge. If Agent Orange Turd gets elected, we will be driving towards Project 2025, which is the scariest thing I have read since The Shining. It is the path to eliminate democracy and enable an Authoritarian who idolizes Hitler and wishes to mimic Putin. The bottom line is we can vote blue this year, and then vote for a younger candidate in 2028; or we could vote red this year and never vote again. Celebrating a birthday, a memory of what this country stood for has become a questionable task as those of us who see America as a progressive democracy of inclusivity watch the country slip back to a country that doesn’t guarantee the pursuit of life, liberty or happiness for all.
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