Cheerful yet Sad yet Patriotic July 4th to you!

I think the tide will turn, I know it will, but only if we exert ourselves and don’t give up.

It’s a sad July 4th, and a shaken one—if we care about others. If we care about our beautiful country. But patriotism isn’t nationalism. It’s about our values: democracy, hard-won equality and other freedoms, the right to live a good life and drink good water and breathe good air, the duty to dialogue and learn from one another, to live together as Americans, not merely partisans or nationalists.

Happy July 4th. And Unhappy July 4th. Either way, let’s do better. Do kinder. Do more peacefully. Do more honestly. ~ Waylon

When I was growing up, Republicans and Democrats alike viewed our country, rightly, as immigrant-friendly. Not only that, but immigrant-proud. We’re all immigrants, unless we’re Native. That’s 98% of the US—we are immigrants, or the children of immigrants.

Now, every wave of immigration saw folks pull up the ladder after them…WASPs were mean to Germans or Swedes, who were mean to Italians or Irish, or Black Americans, etc. But, too, it was a value that united us, that our leaders taught and espoused: immigration makes us rich, both in culture, and economically.

That’s still true today.

And yet, hating other is a wonderful way to gin up people’s enthusiasms and fears without actually having to help anyone, or fix anything. And so, today, because too many folks didn’t vote, or saw it fit to vote for the openly, transparently bad and destructive candidate…here we are.

Men, paid by our taxpayer dollars, wearing masks over their faces, with no badge number or name visible, kidnapping (for there is no other word for it) immigrants who are following the law to the “t.” Kidnapping, them, even as they exit courtrooms, where they are following our laws.

We know all this.

What are we going to do about it?

Remind ourselves of the plaque on the Statue of Liberty. Remind ourselves of Reagan’s words, of the many patriotic Americans who have offered tribute to our uniquely diverse melting pot, or salad bowl of humanity. We are America. And so are you.

If laws are the point, we would not be led by the lawbreakers. If laws are the point, we would not arrest immigrants exiting courtrooms. If laws are the point, we would not be getting rid of legal forms of immigration or sending non-criminal, law-abiding, vulnerable folks and families off, away, unseen, unprotected, without Habeus Corpus.
If laws are the point, we would not be led by a criminal President who pardons criminals and does not understand our Constitution or Bill of Rights or Declaration of Independence, and has not read them, let alone the Bible he claims to represent:

We were better than this, and we can be again. And, too, we are this bad, and were this bad, and will be this bad again.

Let us work to bend that arc of history toward justice, once more. This fair progress will not be achieved by liberals vs. conservatives, or conservatives vs. liberals…but by all Americans finding their voice, finding their heart, and speaking up.

For 1/3 of this country didn’t vote. And it’s you who hold the power to get us out of this mud, and to a place of stability, of bipartisan immigration reform, of solutions and accountability instead of mere blame and hate.

We are all Americans before we are partisans. We should not be actively trying to let alone enjoying making one another miserable. We should be building a truly great, caring country instead of wasting billions on aggression and hate while stealing billions for our richest.