My best memories of long July 4th weekends are from when I was a teenager and our family spent them camping, and I was running with other teenagers.
Otherwise, I’ve usually been ambivalent about celebrating this national holiday. The country’s founding, of course — I celebrate that — and as this is my 78th Independence Day, I’m now 31.7 percent as old as America (249), making me a virtual grandson of the Revolution.
Can you grapple with that? If life were a relay race, a baby born in 1776 reaching the age of 80 could have “handed off” a baton (the Declaration of Independence) to a baby in 1856, who then at the age of 80 in 1936 handed off the baton to my big sister, who was born in that very year.
That was just two lifetimes removed from the founding of the nation.
She lateraled the baton to me ten years later, making her 35.3 percent as old as America, so round us off together and the generational math of this relay race metaphor makes almost perfect sense.
But life isn’t a race, even though it can sometimes feel that way, and even if it were, who can say to where we are headed?
That indeed is the current dilemma. Where is this society headed? Exactly what type of my country, ‘tis of thee do we sing?
These days it can feel like we’re headed backwards, maybe not all the way to genocidal wars on the native population and slavery, but to violence against immigrants and abandonment of the poor.
This July 4th, the Americans I celebrate, past, present and future, are those who believe in freedom and justice for all of the people all of the time, regardless of race, sex, age, gender, religion, citizenship status or any other factor used by the most dangerous president in history to divide rather than unite us.
So I say Happy Birthday to a more loving America — if we can still aspire to such a thing in these damaged times.
HEADLINES:
The ‘Dirty and Nasty People’ Who Became Americans (Atlantic)
People Power Revisiting the origins of American democracy. (New Yorker)
At Least 24 Are Killed in Texas Flood, and 25 Are Missing (NYT)
US fiscal folly could create big, beautiful debt spiral (Reuters)
GOP tax bill bets big on Trump’s immigration agenda despite poll warnings (WP)
Peter Thiel’s Palantir poses a grave threat to Americans (Guardian)
Welcome to the Mafia Presidency (Atlantic)
Hamas says it responds to Gaza ceasefire proposal in 'a positive spirit' (Reuters)
Trump and Zelensky speak amid U.S. weapons pause and Russian strikes (WP)
GOP megabill littered with special tax breaks (Politico)
‘This is draconian’: Trump’s big bill expected to bring more hunger, sickness, homelessness to Berkeley (Berkeleyside)
To appease Trump and retain grants, UC bars student governments from boycotting Israel (SFC)
Public Radio Stations Face Uncertain Future (LNN)
What Could a Healthy AI Companion Look Like? (Wired)
Laid-off workers should use AI to manage their emotions, says Xbox exec (Verge)
OpenAI Hits the Panic Button (Gizmodo)
Area Man Has Complete Prison-Survival Strategy Mapped Out (The Onion)
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