The United States was founded on an idea and an ideal. But even from the first moment the indigenous peoples were violently targeted, those lofty ideals began to sag.
This Independence Day I found myself more full of sadness than on any other July 4. I was washing dishes in the kitchen and in the background was news of yet more mass shootings in various parts of the country. Out of the blue, completely unexpectedly, I got emotional and began to shed tears. I had suddenly been hit with profound feelings of sadness, helplessness and despair over the total sum of what the USA has become. Have we gone mad?
Mass shootings are now as much a part of the American weekend as grilling burgers in the backyard. But that’s not all the lament.
I feel sad and angry about the availability of firearms and the people who mow people down without a second thought. The pace of firearm production is actually accelerating. And don’t fall for that mental illness nonsense. This is a classic straw man fallacy.
I feel sad and angry about The Savage Six on the Supreme Court. Just outright wickedness and cruelty. The homophobic website woman did not even have standing. The case should have been thrown out, but the Savage Six could barely wait for a chance to pounce. And affirmative action, gone. And a woman’s right to choose her motherhood future, gone.
I feel sad and angry about the governors of various states who wake up every morning deciding how they can make life as miserable as humanly possible for LGBTQ+ people. Some cohorts of the MAGA group actually believe that the “problem” of trans people is actually more of an urgent concern for the USA than inflation, unemployment or race relations.
Sad and angry about high maternal and neonatal death rates among black women accompanied by doctors’ racial bias that makes them disbelieve black people's legitimate symptoms; the absence of health care for all; the chasm between the suffering poor and the oblivious, happy rich. I apologize I have no uplifting message this Independence Day.