The Fourth of July is my least favorite holiday but probably not for the reasons you might think. Yes it’s true I don’t like the noise and I hate it that so many animals get freaked out by it. And I don’t like worrying that the neighbor kids’ bottle rocket is going to set my house on fire.
But what I really dislike about the holiday is that it makes me sad. It is supposed to be a celebration of America and of our freedom. And yet, this year especially, it feels hollow to me. It is hard to celebrate past victories that birthed one of the greatest experiments in democracy when our democracy is so broken.
We are no longer truly a democracy but instead, a corporatocracy where mega-business and the uber-wealthy have rigged the system. The notion of the American Dream in which anybody of any means can work hard and cross class boundaries is slipping further and further away.
As a nation we idolize violence and locking people up – more so than any other industrialized nation by a huge amount. We say we love our homeland but we are destroying it in our addiction to fossil fuel. Just last week the US Democratic party, while developing its 2016 policy platform, rejected banning fracking or a putting a firm price on carbon.
I have seen first hand how the political parties are more focused on grabbing power than serving our greater good. And now we have the spectacle of this presidential campaign highlighting silver-spoon-fed egomania and Oligarchy.
So today, instead of celebrating how we fought for freedom 240 years ago I am going to hold the vision of Americans being as committed to working to get ourselves and our nation back on track as we are to our Fourth of July fireworks and beerfests.
I feel very lucky to have been born in the United States. I hope our kids and grandkids will have reason to feel the same. This year as I listen to the bombs exploding in air, I am going to envision those jolts waking us all up and igniting our collective drive to become a truly great, positive and loving society.
Cylvia Hayes
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