Last week with our 250th birthday in mind, I walked through my town of Huntington, Long Island. Settled in 1653, over a century before the Declaration of Independence, it is steeped in American history.
Climbing the hill to the old Town Hall with its monumental porticoed front and prominent clock tower, I stood among the rows of flapping American flags, letting them wrap around me in the breeze.
I was surrounded by dozens of bronze and stone memorials and plaques honoring local veterans dating back to the Revolutionary War. I thought of these soldiers and sailors, and nurses who had served, and made the ultimate sacrifice in the Civil War, the Spanish American War, The Great War, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
I wondered what they would think of the country they left to us. We were the stewards of all they fought for.
There didn’t feel much to celebrate on July 4th.
Photo: Jon Martin
Envisioning The American Dream 
Much like I strive to separate celebrating the country of Israel from acknowledging its toxic right-wing government, I spent this July 4th celebrating the America I was raised in and tried to disassociate myself from our current administration. I understand your feelings of not having much to celebrate. I think most Americans are just trying to survive these horribly trying times to get through to what we hope will be better times. It would take a gargantuan effort, greater than even Trump himself to permanently break America. Let’s set our sights on
July 4, 2029 and hope we’ll have much more to celebrate then.
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Your analogy to Israel is an apt one and one that I subscribe too as well. We are all despondent, but there remains a part of me that is hopeful that America will survive this and will in fact have something to celebrate on July 2029. Our country has weathered other severe divisions, but we have never had an authoritarian president allowed to run amok without many guardrails as with do with Trump. But I never give up hope.
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