“How great to be American and something else as well”

4th of July was always a holiday as a kid where I wasn’t quite sure what I was celebrating. We didn’t put out decorations, or have some special family meal where the grandparents came over and we carved a bird. There was no religious connotations with the 4th. We weren’t celebrating veterans like Memorial Day, or Veterans Day as any veterans from the Revolutionary War would have been long dead.

I understood we were celebrating our independence as a sovereign nation. We celebrated the fact that some British colonists decided they no longer wanted to be told what to do by the King and the Monarchy in England. They wanted to live however they wanted to live, and not be told how to spend their money or how to worship God or how much land they could own. We celebrated the fact that as Americans we were the greatest country in the world because we were the freest country in the world. We had this day, the 4th of July, set aside to celebrate being free to live how we wanted. We did that with grilling meats, mayo-based salads, coolers of soda and beer, and of course fireworks.

We occasionally did fireworks. Usually just the variety pack you could buy at Hook’s Drug Store or 3D retail store. These were the pedestrian kind; the black worms that you lit and stained the driveway, the limp multi-colored kind that took the place of the Roman Candles and bottlerockets, and of course every sad sack’s favorite, the sparkler. The real deal stuff was illegal in Indiana until the 90s or even the 2000s. In the summer of 1985 we were on our way home from a week in Florida and stopped in Tennessee. My dad saw a fireworks stand and wanted to see what they had. In Tennessee you could buy the good stuff; the kind of stuff you could blow your hand off with. The kind of stuff that Corey Haim used to blind the werewolf on the covered bridge in Silver Bullet.

We loaded up and headed back up north with enough artillery to destroy a small Midwestern town. It felt dangerous. Like we were smuggling drugs, except instead of bricks of cocaine or heroin it was M-80s and ‘Death From Above’ sky lighters.

For the most part, the 4th was just another day at our house. My dad was a private in the Indiana Reserves during Vietnam. He joined out of fear of being drafted, as at the time he was married with a baby(my older brother) at home, a young wife, and a good job he’d gotten right out of high school. This way he did Basic Training, then those weekend training sessions at Fort Knox where they probably did calisthenics and drank lots of beer.

So he didn’t have to go to Vietnam and die in a jungle or come home with PTSD for the rest of his life, but he was in line to do so if Nixon thought it was necessary. What my dad did do was live that American Dream we all hear about. The dream to work a good job that allowed him to afford to take care of his family. Build the 3 bedroom, two bath, two-car garage with a basketball hoop out front and a playset out back. Go on vacations, have some presents under the Christmas tree, and have decent health insurance to take care of him and his wife and kids. Maybe even splurge on a sports car. But mostly, live the life that he wanted to live without feeling a debt to anyone but himself and maybe the mortgage lender. And if his kids wanted to go to college he could make that happen(they didn’t, btw.)

That dream is what brought people from all over the world here. It brought Germans, Italians, Irish, Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Norwegians, Mexicans, Latin Americans, Caribbeans, Africans, and many others. They wanted the “apple pie” and “yankee doodle dandy” that they saw on TV and heard about from relatives that made the journey. They wanted the same for their families, and wanted those opportunities to live the way they wanted to live, free of political, social, and religious persecution. Many came through Ellis Island, but many came over here illegally. Yet despite that they became productive members of society. Some had to work their debts off before becoming citizens. They helped build this country by working on the railroads, building skyscrapers, bridges, housing additions, churches, banks, and helped harvest food that fed us. They did the work “natives” felt they were above doing. They earned their place here through, blood, sweat, and tears.

The 4th was a time to celebrate the melting pot the US was. The only true American culture was created by Native Americans. That is OG American culture. Everything else we are known for comes from that melting pot of culture that built the US into what it is today. All the food, the clothes, the films, the books, the music….if it weren’t for that melting pot what would we have? We’d probably still be boiling all of our meat and tea would be preferable to coffee. What we have and love and appreciate is because of a melting pot of culture that came from Europe, Mexico, Africa, the Caribbean, and everywhere else in the world. I guess we got parachute pants, Tide Pod challenges, and Hot Pockets.

Besides fireworks scaring animals and possibly veterans with PTSD, the 4th is not something I celebrate much anymore. It’s been taken over by this Nationalist Patriotism that feels as canned as laughter on sitcoms. It’s fake and propagandist and meant to appease the weak-kneed and weak-minded that have to have their information spoon-fed to them in syndicated rants pumped out 24/7. The types of folks that came out in droves in 2016, 2020, and 2024 to vote for the first time in most of their lives because a painted clown with a comb over appealed to their inner hatred of brown people and things that weren’t Christian, familiar, or red, white, and blue. I have relatives that were sucked into the hate machine that came together a decade ago and had their brains permanently damaged thanks to the fake America machine.

All of our steps forward over the last several decades; be it Gay Rights, minority rights, the acceptance of different religions or spiritual beliefs, and even regulations that made our working and environmental situations better were ret-conned back to the dark ages. All of that talk about government overreach appealed to closet libertarians and those “Ride Or Die” weekend warriors. They saw that orange guy making fun of everybody and talking shit about people from other countries and felt the glow of that deep-seeded racism they had to bury deep down for years. This guy knew them, and loved them for the closet haters they were.

10 years later and red, white and blue has been tainted. Like the flag was washed with a bunch of MAGA hats and t-shirts made in China and now the colors have faded to a dull blech of non-discernable meaning. AI Uncle Sams with the orange one’s face, machine guns blazing and Rambo-esque pecs. Everything feels as if it was made in a kitchen somewhere in a trailer park and ready to be sold at the county fair. Freedom, patriotism, and the sense of pride to be an American has been co-opted by this barb-wired Nationalism that has more to do with control and boot-licking than the freedom we should be celebrating. That melting pot has been put away, and in its place is some garbage can made in China with a stew of Kraft Mac n Cheese, Quarter Pounders, and empty cans of Diet Coke. And of course enough minority rage bait to give the entire nation heartburn for a decade.

I will always love the United States, and the fact that I ended up being born and raised here. I love the freedom to NOT worship any specific God-like entity. And I love the fact that I can say that without having the secret police or a slew of pedophile priests come to my door to arrest me or diddle me. I love that I can listen to what music I want, watch what films I want, read what books I want, and eat the foods I want. No bread lines or forced employment in some Kafka-esque factory. I love the fact that I could provide for my wife and my kids, and that my kids can live the lives they want to live. You can do those things in America.

But right now, I don’t like where the current goons and opportunists are taking our great country. They’re turning it into their own dystopian wet dream. And a lot of folks are blind to how awful they want things to be. Ballrooms, reflecting pools, payback wars, and Lee Greenwood are not what America is.

The melting pot is what America is. Always will be.