Someone Tell Me What We’re Celebrating: Struggling with Patriotism in America
This year, we didn't do anything for July 4th. And I was completely okay with it.
No barbecue, no friends or family over, no sense that we were supposed to be marking something bigger than an ordinary Tuesday. We saw some fireworks from a distance, little bursts of color over rooftops, and then we watched the sunset, which was honestly the better show. There was no ache of missing out, no nagging feeling that we should have done more. Just a nice evening with the family that happened to fall on a national holiday.
What are we celebrating, exactly?
It took me a few days to notice that the absence itself was the thing worth paying attention to. I keep driving past stores with “JULY 4TH SALE” banners, yards with American flags and other decorations nobody's taken down yet, and feeling a weird sense of frustration.
Then I thought about it a little harder, and I realized it's hard to celebrate the glory of our country during a time in which so much of what this country represents recently is greed, selfishness, racism, and the overwhelming control the rich have gained over us.
Loss of National Parks
Since this administration took office, nearly 24.5 million acres of public land — an area larger than the state of Indiana — have been offered up for oil and gas leasing, much of it sold off in chunks for as little as a couple dollars an acre. Even in California, regulators are moving to open land around Pinnacles and near Yosemite's edges to drilling and fracking, land the same agencies once called too sensitive to touch. These aren't hypothetical threats being debated in some future budget cycle. They're happening now, this year, while flags flap over front lawns two miles from a coastline that's supposed to be protected. Icons of our pristine nature, places people go for peace, fun, happiness, and connection are going to be cut down so some oil barons can make some money.
Bye-Bye Health Care and Support for Children and Seniors
Then there's health care. The budget law signed into effect cuts roughly a trillion dollars from Medicaid over the next decade, and independent estimates project somewhere between ten and fifteen million people losing coverage as a result. Children make up more than a third of Medicaid enrollees. Older adults who rely on Medicaid to cover the things Medicare won't, like dental care, hearing aids, home care, are among the first expected to feel it as states scramble to close budget gaps by trimming exactly those services. So we're sacrificing the health and wellbeing of our children and elderly to make some health care CEOs rich.
The same bill cut food assistance too. More than four million people have already lost SNAP benefits since it took effect, and the losses skew toward children, over 700,000 of them so far. Somewhere in America right now, a parent is deciding between paying for groceries and paying for a doctor's visit, and our politicians are calling that decision freedom. This isn't an accident or carelessness. That's a set of priorities shown in actions. More health being sacrificed for money.
The Diversity This Country Was Founded On Is On The Chopping Block
Beyond health, there's the quieter damage, the kind that shows up as absence rather than headline. ICE immigration raids have expanded into schools, churches, and even school bus routes, and the fallout isn't confined to the families directly targeted. Parents everywhere, not just undocumented ones, are keeping kids home from parks and playgrounds because the fear has become ambient, something you can't opt out of just because your own papers are in order. Teachers report rising absenteeism and kids who've stopped trusting the uniformed officers they used to wave to. This is the part that hits closest to what I actually believe in, the idea that a good life is built on connection, on trusting your neighbors and your public spaces enough to actually use them. You cannot have community while people are afraid to be seen in it. We're losing connection to create a false sense of “safety” by suggesting the dangers of the world come from people who have different skin color or speak a different language.
War - Because Oil?
And then there's the war. Oil prices spiked something like eight percent in the first two days after military operations against Iran began this spring, and kept climbing toward the hundred-dollar mark as the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed to shipping. Whatever you believe about the reasons for that conflict, the economic result landed on ordinary Americans the same way it always does: higher prices at the pump, higher prices on everything that gets to a store by truck or plane, which is to say everything. We started something abroad and are paying for it at home, in grocery bills…And again, for what? Politicians are trying to call it strength and power in the world, but someone's getting richer from the increased prices on everything while we get poorer.
What Is America Now?
I want to be careful here, because I don't want to say that every person in this country or even a majority of them is responsible for what's happening. But this year, when I look at what's actually being chosen on our behalf — more extraction, less care, less food on tables, less trust between neighbors, more war, higher costs passed down to the people with the least room to absorb them — I can't find my way to pride.
We're killing health, happiness, and the connection of Americans for money.
It's been a long time since we've been the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars. We used to be the ones proud to kick kings, emperors, and the wealthy in control to the curb. Unfortunately, for a long time now, we've been a lot more akin to the evil Galactic Empire, and now we're showing it in spades.
I don't have a neat ending for this one, and I'm not going to pretend I do. I also hope I'm not coming off as someone who hates America. I was born here and love so many of the ideals this country was founded on. But I keep coming back to a question that shapes a lot of what I write about here. Patriotism is supposed to be pride that we're doing right by the world. I keep asking myself whether the pride I used to feel will ever come back. I suppose it will, but the current administration makes it really hard to see that future.
For now, I'm going to have to just keep being what I think a “good American” looks like and hoping that there are enough of us that we can slowly get this ship turned back in the right direction.
