What's Different?

In the summer of 1976 I was 7, though I would have told you I was 7 going on 8. I was still in that time where as soon as you had a birthday you were counting down to the next. Seven and a quarter, seven and a half... I think that ends at 21 for most people, or maybe 25 if you need to rent a car or buy insurance without hassle.

Oddly, it picks back up later, but accelerated. Like now two months out from my 58th birthday I don't say I'm 57 or even 57 going on 58, I tend to say I'm almost 60. I guess when we are younger we are racing to get to the next thing and when we are older we are just bragging that we've made it this far?

ANYWAY... 1976. Everything that year was red, white, and blue. There was bunting and banners in all of the stores. Tons of clothing with stars and stripes on them, flag code be damned! Fire hydrants were all painted red, white, and blue. I can remember how mad my mom was when they painted the dumpster red, white, and blue. I thought it was cool. Not just because it was prettier than the old color, but seeing my mom get worked up about anything (that wasn't directed at you) was always fun.

There were murals on the sides of businesses that celebrated the bicentennial. There was the bicentennial quarter that we all thought was super cool, even years later getting a bicentennial quarter in your change was cool. I can remember newspaper articles about history. And before school was out a special assembly and presentation. And streets lined with flags.

It was a big freaking deal.

I mean our country was 200 years old. Keep it indeed!

Today is June 4, we are one month out from the 4th of July. What should be the apex of the celebration. We should be knee deep in red, white, and blue EVERYTHING right now. And there is some of that. Heather Cox Richardson is doing a special 250 in 250 video series. Little clips about historical figures that changed our nation. Those have been interesting. But that's about it.

A month out from the 4th of July. Independence Day. Two hundred and fifty years of our nation. And...

Eh.

I warned Katie that it was going to be an onslaught of patriotism this year. That no matter where you turned there was going to be a flag waving. That even people who normally didn't get really into the U.S.A. chants were going to be doing it, and those that normally fly flags out of their assholes, I mean, off of the back of their trucks, were going to be unbearable. And yet...

World Cup starts next week. We are one of the host countries. We have a talented (for us) team that if they put it all together could actually do well. I watch soccer. I watch European football. I'm friends with other people who do the same. And yet, leaving the Thorns match last week, our last game before World Cup break, I don't think any of us talked about the actual World Cup. No jabs at our English friend. No "we believe that we will crash out after the group stage" jokes. Nothing.

This should be such a prime patriotism, U.S.A. chanting, red, white, and blue wearing, time that it's crazy how not that it is.

I'm sure in different parts of the country it's probably a little different. It has to be right? Like county fair country? They all must have 250 themes going. I know the nonpartisan commission that was supposed to put together things on the national level got co-opted by a similarly named, but not quite the same Trump invention. And that he is planning on a gilt covered love fest in DC. But...does that make the average heart swell with pride over our country?

Does seeing a gold plated horse statue when you are paying close to $6 a gallon at the pump and hearing him talk about how he's bored with peace negotiations for a war he started on a whim fill you with patriotism?

Does his talk about how the reflecting pool will now be American Flag Blue make you feel like it's a celebration of 250 years? Which, I mean, I guess, as blue won't make the surface a reflecting pool anymore. It will just be gaudy blue covered in duck shit. So...USA USA?

How about an arch that frames Robert E Lee's house and blocks the view of the cemetery while also breaking the line of sight between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington that was ALL SYMBOLOGY YOU IGNORANT ORANGUTAN! Or his face on a $250 bill? Or the myriad of banners hanging from federal buildings with him scowling down at you?

And that's the real challenge I think. Instead of it being a celebration of our country, and look, lumps and all we can still find things to celebrate, it's become a "celebration" of him. What should be a celebration of breaking free from a king 250 years ago has clearly become a reflection of what happens when you allow yourself to slide back into that. Call it unitary executive theory if you want, but it's the antithesis of what we were founded on and it's nothing more than a red, white, and blue dumpster....