Why I’m Not Celebrating The Fourth
In the past, the Fourth of July has been one of my favorite holidays. I take out my eagle-tipped pole with the flag and fly the stars and stripes from my front porch. As the granddaughter of two sets of immigrants, I weep tears of pride at the lyrics of Neil ‘Diamond’s “Coming to America.”
I still weep when I hear that song, but this year they are tears of sadness — sadness for a country that has veered so drastically from the compassionate, democratic values that have made the U.S. a beacon of hope for generations of people around the world.
I cannot find it in my heart to celebrate when our Congress just passed the largest income redistribution package in our history — one that will benefit the wealthiest people in the U.S. while balancing it on the backs of the poorest of our citizens, people who earn less than $13,350 a year.
What’s more, after promising not to reduce Medicaid or food assistance, millions of our most vulnerable citizens will in fact lose those benefits. Big surprise: the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans lied.
The price tag to pay for these tax cuts along with increased spending for war machinery and border control will add an estimated $3.2 trillion to the national debt. So much for blaming the previous administration of spending profligately. Look to yourselves, dear Congress members. The bill will eventually come due for all this borrowing, and God help our economy when it does.
I am heartbroken too when I see masked immigration agents armed with rifles arrest immigrants who are merely showing up at their places of work, or at their legally guaranteed court hearings.
Perhaps you voted for this administration believing it would deport dangerous criminals. It is now widely documented that immigration officials have swept up even people here legally in indiscriminate raids, causing them to become like the ‘desaparecidos,” the disappeared of the 1970s dictatorships in Chile and Argentina.
Will we allow our country to stoop so low?
Entering the U.S. illegally is not a crime under federal law, it is a misdemeanor. Hardly in line with committing murder or rape. Nevertheless, in its rush to boast of the biggest mass deportation in U.S. history, the Trump administration doesn’t seem to get the difference.
It sickening to me — yes, sickening — when I hear Trump and his minions gleefully describe a new immigrant detention facility in the Florida everglades as “Alligator Alcatraz,” referring to one of the most notorious prisons of all time, while speaking smugly in dehumanizing terms about the thousands who might be housed there.
Just listen to Trump at a recent press briefing: “There are a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops that are in the form of alligators. You don’t have to pay them so much, but I wouldn’t want to run through the everglades for long.”
Those remarks came before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the people to be housed there “scumbags.”
By the way, to pay for “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Trump administration plans to transfer $450 million from a Federal Emergency Management Administration fund previously earmarked to provide shelter and other services to people in natural disasters. Wonder how well that will go over when the next big hurricane hits Florida and there’s a scramble for FEMA funding to help those affected.
Florida state legislator Angie Dixon likened the everglades detention facility to a concentration camp. “Donald Trump’s blueprint for America has now become barbed wire and broken families,” Dixon said. “All he’s simply doing is returning our country to the worst chapters of our history.”
To be sure, history’s watchful eye is always upon us. And history will surely judge harshly those of us alive at this period in American history — unless we resist what is so patently wrong.
I also cry out to those of us who consider ourselves people of faith. Dare we forget that Jesus and his family were once refugees too? Jesus commanded us to take care of “the least of these.” He was always on the side of the poor, the ill, the downtrodden, the marginalized. Dare we be anything less?
Another troubling development also led to my decision to forgo Fourth of July celebrations. It occurred when the president threatened to arrest Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic primary winner in the New York mayoral race, if Mamdani wins and then tries to thwart the arrest of immigrants in that city.
What does it say about our democracy if disagreeing with the administration in power can lead to one’s arrest? It says we have lost our democracy.
Trump has wrongly accused Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and is a naturalized citizen, of being here illegally. He has labeled Mamdani a “communist.” This seems to be the term du jour for anyone who disagrees with president. It is a tactic all to similar to McCarthy-era smears.
Is this what we want to return to?
It might sound a little silly given the stakes of what we are facing in this country, but I recently discovered a PBS cable channel that airs continuous episodes of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Fred Rogers taught countless children in America — myself included —how to treat others with respect, to look upon differences in race, culture and ethnicity as an opportunity for learning. In one episode I watched, Mr. Rogers sang an original song in which he says:
When your heart has room for everybody,
Then your heart is full of love …
It’s a simple thought but a profound one, filled with Christ’s own message. When we spread fear, label others and foment hate, we know we are veering far from the gospels’ teachings. We are far removed also from American ideals.
I’d prefer Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood any day to what I’m seeing in today’s America. This Fourth of July, may we reflect on what makes America truly great — our capacity for compassion, mutual respect, and fostering the common good.
