May The Fourth Be With Us

Or behind us

A family member has worked on plans for the America’s 250^th celebration for more than a year. She’s in Connecticut. The Bible that George Washington used when he was sworn in as the first president was on display in her home town. A Dutch tall ship, the Oosterschelde, came to the town’s harbor. Three thousand people turned out. In her former colony state, the revolution was celebrated.

And in Texas? I went to the neighborhood parade. It’s been going on for more than fifty years. My City Council member, Zo Qadri, was there in a US soccer shirt. He spoke to us about the promise of America. The former county tax assessor and elections administrator, Bruce Elfant, spoke as well. He lived in the neighborhood before the airport was moved. (Newcomers often don’t know there was an airport behind the neighborhood.) Bruce’s speech referenced the long “arc of the moral universe.”

A neighbor with the best voice usually sings the Star-Spangled Banner, but he couldn’t be there this year. Instead, the emcee held a recording up to the mic. That worked. There was face painting for kids. There was a small animal petting zoo. HEB contributed fans with flags.

We didn’t have a tall ship in the harbor. We had a peacock swim raft lashed to the top of a car. We had two firetrucks and an ambulance. The intrepid firefighters and emergency medical technicians show up as part of their community outreach.

Occasionally an emergency requires their attention. The lights go on, the sirens blare, and they leave to save lives. But they made it all the way through the parade as it proceeded with bikes and strollers and neighbors walking through the quiet, tree-covered streets.

Here are my thoughts:

Somewhere between the tall ships
And the neighborhood gathering
Somewhere beyond the divisions
There are ordinary people
With potlucks and barbeques
And children with face paint
Where camaraderie and hope combine
With truths we hold self-evident
To forge a better future

The Fourth Is With Us

I borrowed the title of my post from Anne Lamott. She reminds me that writing is a gift and that “laughter is carbonated holiness.” Here’s a joke she included in her Substack, The Fourth Is With Us.

I remember a riddle from decades years ago—as my dad would say, from before Milton Berle: Why aren’t there any knock-knock jokes about America? Because freedom rings. — Anne Lamott

Power and Glory

Here are words I turn to for inspiration. They are a gift from Phil Ochs.

For here is a land full of power and glory
Beauty that words cannot recall
Oh, her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom
Glory shall rest on us all

Yet she’s only as rich as the poorest of the poor
Only as free as a padlocked prison door
Only as strong as our love for this land
Only as tall as we stand

—Phil Ochs, 1964

A Nation of Contradictions

Carl Davidson, a fellow member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 60s, said people could borrow shamelessly from his Substack. Here are his thoughts on the 4th of July.

Do we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, with its soaring language about equality and rights? Do we celebrate the Constitution, with its careful architecture of governance? Do we celebrate the struggles of abolitionists, suffragists, labor organizers, civil rights activists, queer liberationists, and all those who fought to expand the meaning of “We the People”?

Or do we mourn the genocide of Indigenous nations, the enslavement of Africans, the exploitation of workers, the internment of Japanese Americans, the surveillance of dissenters, the endless wars, the coups, the occupations?

The answer, of course, is both…

The answers are not predetermined. They will be written by the movements, the grassroots organizations, the struggles, the solidarities, and the courage of ordinary people. The flag will mean whatever we make it mean. And the nation—this strange, conflicted, beautiful, brutal nation—will become whatever we dare to imagine and fight for.

A NEW SDS

On July 3rd, two activists in the NEW Students for a Democratic Society were guests on Rag Radio. One of them was just suspended from the University of Texas at Austin for attempting to meet with the provost about the proposed Trump Compact. In 1967, I was among the six put on disciplinary probation by the University of Texas for giving a speech in an unauthorized location. I was guest host for the broadcast.

I encourage you to listen to what they have to say.