Excuse me, but what are we celebrating? Is it the crushing blow to women’s rights by the Supreme Court? A ten year old girl being denied an abortion in Ohio? Or the repeated failure of Congress to pass meaningful gun-control legislation sliding so smoothly into today’s slaughter in Illinois? I see the fireworks, the singing, the dancing. Forgive me, but what are we celebrating? Six Americans were murdered. More than 30 others were injured. I feel like mourning the dead, not dancing in the street. Determining what’s wrong so that we can fix it. I don’t feel like celebrating anything right now. It feels like reality is being denied. Being resilient is one thing. Being in denial, is another.
It appears NBC,ABC, CBS and MSNBC will not be covering Trump’s speech tonight. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I feel like congratulating the networks for having the courage to refuse coverage to this narcissist who would be king. On the other, Trump’s base (lemming people) will automatically go to FOX to watch the “salute to Donald,” so they will miss nothing by the nets refusals to provide coverage. And yet, there might be those who would be repulsed by what Trump is doing, but who will not see the bloviating blowhard doing his thing complete with tanks on display and a military flyover. So there’s that, as well. There is also the fact that even for those of us who are repulsed by the man, he is nevertheless, the president. Not covering his official 4th of July publicity stunt may serve only to give more firepower to the far-right. And maybe not. Not sure how I feel about this. Personally, I won’t be celebrating the 4th until Trump, and the threat he represents, is out of office.
I’d prefer to ignore everything the man says and does, but God only knows what he is liable to do or say next.
At the same time, no matter how we feel about Trump hijacking a national holiday, we can all feel good about the U.S. women’s soccer team, which appears to be headed for victory at the World Cup on Sunday. They are true champions, especially their star striker, Megan Rapinoe, who has already stated that she won’t be answering an invitation to visit the White House. Hopefully the other women on the team will follow suit, as U.S. women’s soccer gives us all something we can feel good about. Even while Trump, exhibiting his usual rhetorical elegance and wit, has called Rapinoe, “a loser.” Mr. Trump’s habit of transferring his personal shortcomings onto others is becoming so tiresome.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” In Congress, July 4, 1776
