July 4

A round of get-togethers filled the long weekend. Capping off several days of sporadic fireworks and other celebratory booms and bangs, the house shook in late afternoon as neighbors set off what could only be sticks of dynamite.

July 5

Much needed rain soothes my tiny corner of the earth as it relaxes and refreshes after the hot, noisy, frenetic activity of the weekend.

I cannot relax. I do not feel refreshed.

I cannot shake the dread that threatens to consume me.

I Cannot Celebrate My Country

I consider the children and grandchildren of my country and cannot help but doubt that they will have a livable environment in which to see out their lives. The temperatures are warming, the insects are disappearing, the oceans are rising and weather is becoming more volatile.

I contemplate these children and can only hope they will not be killed or traumatized by the unchecked ubiquity of guns in our culture. I pray they remain free from a tragic alignment of circumstances that puts a loaded gun in their hands and they accidentally or purposefully kill themselves or someone else. I try to keep my head free of fear that they will become victims of a massacre at the hands of an unhinged murderer with an armory of guns.

I think about daughters and granddaughters and hope they will have autonomy over their bodies and their health. I pray they are never the victims of rape or incest or become pregnant as a result. I can only hope they are never forced to go through the trauma of giving birth to a child with problems so severe they cannot live.

I consider this patriarchal culture we inhabit and despair the country’s current politics that favor the wealthy and elite and seem intent on destroying opportunity and rights for everyone who is not part of that elite.

The Supreme Court does not represent most US voters

The Supreme Court of the United States has made it easier for corporations to destroy the environment in favor of profits. This same Supreme Court took back women’s guarantees of reproductive freedoms and made it easier for citizens to carry concealed weapons.

• How can I celebrate a country that promotes plundering the planet we all depend on for our very existence?
• How can I celebrate a country that claims to be a democracy, yet currently threatens the autonomy of half of the citizens over their own bodies?
• How can I celebrate a country that, through its inaction over gun safety, condones the killing, maiming and traumatizing of the lives of so many of its people?

There are five justices on the Supreme Court who were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote. George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore in 2000. Though he later won the popular vote in the 2004 election, that would not have happened had there not been a Supreme Court decision in his favor that allowed him to become president in 2000. George W. Bush appointed Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. In 2016, Donald Trump lost the popular vote by almost 2.9 million votes. He appointed Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

The majority of Americans did not vote for the presidents who appointed these five justices. Yet, with the addition of Clarence Thomas, these five justices have just been instrumental in perpetrating harm on many American citizens. The majority of justices on the United States Supreme Court are making decisions that affect all of our lives, yet the fact that they were appointed by presidents who did not win the popular vote means they do not reflect the will of the people of our democracy.

My congressman tried to overturn the will  of the voters

The Republican Congressman who represents the district I live in has been in office since winning election in 2010. Mike Kelly has been an ardent and vocal supporter of former president Trump, who was not elected by the majority of American citizens. Following the 2020 election, Kelly filed a lawsuit in the Pennsylvania courts, seeking to invalidate all mail-in ballots cast in the state. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson stated that Kelly had provided him a slate of fake electors in order to overturn the will of Pennsylvania voters. Kelly denies Johnson’s claim, but it is clear that Kelly continues to support a previous president who engineered an insurrection against the American government in trying to remain in office despite losing both the popular and electoral college votes.

I cannot celebrate my country; neither will I abandon it

I will do what I can to make this country one I can celebrate. A country where women are secure in the knowledge that their health is between them and their doctors. A country that is invested in the future of its people, our children and grandchildren, instead of profits and excess wealth for a few elites. A country where gun ownership is not a measure of masculinity. A country where government represents the majority of the voters and laws serve all the people equally. A country where my representative respects the will of the voters.

In other words . . . a democracy.

In the words of Emmeline Pankhurst:

If it is right for men to fight for their freedom, and God knows what the human race would be like today if men had not, since time began, fought for their freedom, then it is right for women to fight for their freedom and the freedom of the children they bear.

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist who helped women win the vote.  In 1999, Time magazine named her as one of the 100 Most Important people of the 20th Century.