To be brutally truthful 4th of July has lost its luster for me. All that ironic flag waving, and firework shooting feels pretty wrong as we live in a country that fights tooth and nail to take the rights away from so many, endangers others and leaves yet others to die while it clutches it’s pearls and sings God Bless America with a beer in one hand and an unread bible in another.
It makes me sad and angry and has me in no mind to get the latest ” Greatest country B.S. 4th of July shirt from the Gap or make a holiday quilt. So with that in mind I have been reading how to reclaim this holiday as an avowed progressive and this is a bit what I have learned and hope to express in how I will celebrate this holiday.
America has always been shaped and changed for the better by “ordinary” citizens who have seen injustice and have stepped out of their comfort zones, often in the face of danger, to make real change both large and small. They have encountered resistance, faced censure, and been beaten down by the wealthy and those in positions of power and abuse and yet still they have risen to the task at hand.
It is progressives who agitate for change not only for themselves but for those those around them not getting their fair share of the “American dream”, and continue to gather those of a like mind to form waves of change. Perhaps small at first, but even a small wave changes the shoreline over time.
For that reason this year I celebrate those who work for change, who speak up, who make a difference, pushing back against those standing on a very murky and ugly side of history.
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This year I celebrate:
The “ordinary” women who risk their safety, security and community status to shine a light and use their voices to call attentions to the detrimental effects the patriarchy has on all of us each day. The women who don’t shut up when it comes to rights for women to control their own bodies as well as their bank accounts.
The “ordinary” men who mentor as well as stand up to other men when their words and actions are out of place, their views neanderthal and their behavior dangerous to others.
The “ordinary” folx, Gay, Lesbian, Trans and Non-binary who have fought with tireless effort to win back rights that should have never been taken away. Winning the rights to be able to marry, have children, homes, jobs and ordinary lives like anyone else.
Those “ordinary” people who work from inside in our our military, and police forces to make these institutions safe and equal. They risk their own careers and safety to weed out the “bad apples” who are dangerous and promote hate masked as patriotism and service to this country.
And so many more “ordinary” folks, breaking generational curses in families through, action, education, talking, therapy and the understanding that they way it has been is not the way it has to be.
THESE are the people I will think of as wear my own “patriotic” shirt, wave my sparklers and eat my potato salad, all while knowing that it is the continued fight of the ordinary people that will one day let us truly claim the title of a great nation, since as it stands now we are still a serious work in progress.
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