On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. has been ramping up celebrations for its semiquincentennial birthday, including with the Great American State Fair in Washington D.C. that grew increasingly partisan in its planning process and so underwhelming in its execution we could be better off celebrating America’s “birthday” with music industry darling Taylor Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce’s wedding at Madison Square Garden in New York today.
Each Independence Day becomes a moment to reflect on American triumphs, culture, and defining moments — everything from Paul Revere’s midnight ride to the moon landing to hot dog eating contests. With America’s 250th Independence Day, there’s something different in the air I hope I am not the only one tapping into. It does not feel triumphant by any means, nor does it feel entirely dejected. It feels like listening to someone on oxygen’s raspy gasps for air — wanting to cheer, but needing to sustain life more than anything else.
While it is a myth that the average empire lasts 250 years, it is true that all societies do eventually die independent of their age. Assuming an idea of an American infinite is a product of survivorship bias, but it is a hope I think we all crave for when fireworks light up our skies each Fourth of July and we remember America can be just as beautiful as it is ugly. Far from exceptional, yet monumentally extraordinary while simultaneously stained by a past and present of oppression it still does not know how (or want) to reconcile with.
There is a grief in watching your country prioritize its newly minted trillionaires and Silicon Valley tech bros over the American people who are left to fend for themselves with congressional representatives who, when asked about the affordability crisis, reply, “Affordability? What are you talking about?” and proceed to describe how they plan to eat lobster tails and ribeye for their July 4th celebrations. It remains apt, then, that some of Walmart’s Independence Day products are ironically marking themselves with “1776-2026” this year like a gravestone for an American dynasty come to an end.
There won’t be a single moment when someone important stands up at a podium and declares the end of America, nor do I think America’s end is upon us at any point soon. I think what we are feeling in the hollowness of Independence Day this year is the pain of change and drawbacks to the progress that was starting to push America towards the kind of country one could be proud of. We are experiencing a paralytic response to the overwhelm being thrown at us in our news feeds and grocery bills — not to mention this year’s holiday coinciding with heat domes choking even the staunchest of climate change deniers and killing thousands in Europe.
I certainly shall not sit here and throw at you “America has never been the land of the free” -isms I think we are all cognizant and critically aware of enough to at least acknowledge the irony of celebrating July 4th as if it were an anniversary of freedom for everyone. Nor shall I tear down patriotism in its constructive form. There is a lot of joy to fight for in America. Neighbors to love. Chairs to bring to the table. Patriotism is not stalwarting around claiming your country has never waivered from righteousness, even with its undeniable evils. It is recognizing and atoning for the wrongs of your country because you care for its ideals and its people and you want always for it to be better. Those who want to call people who criticize the American establishment “traitors” and “unpatriotic” are the very counters to the goal of freedom we sign on to fight for when we adopt the identity of an American.
I originally sought out with this article to work the story of the V-J Day Times Square Kiss photograph into the 250th Independence Day discourse — laying out the true story of sexual assault captured in the photograph and arguing for its withstanding emblemism of American culture regardless of whether you view it from its fictional or true narrative. But now, it no longer feels fitting to tell you how precisely photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt chased drunken naval officer George Mendonsa around Times Square as he grabbed and kissed unconsenting women, capturing a winner shot of Mendonsa roughly bending unsuspecting dental assistant Greta Zimmer into a compromising position as she was photographed without her consent or knowledge. It’s not anything revolutionary or new to suggest things aren’t what they seem in how we view American history and — whoa, big shocker — that real history tends to be grossly problematic and oppressive.
While the part of myself that wants to live in the dejected corners of my spirit in the face of democratic upheaval courtesy of the current presidential administration and say, “Hey, let’s not act like any of this is new. America has always been repressive,” I have another part of myself filled with hope and guilty patriotism that says, “Just because we know what to expect doesn’t mean we have to accept it.”
It is crucial that Americans continue to define the contours of what is shocking, gross, and distinctly undemocratic. If we react to each Bad Thing™ with proclamations of “I told you so”s and “America has always been [xyz]” we are only allowing a status quo to remain. Yes, America has always been [xyz] or insert whatever negative adjective your America descriptor spinner lands on, but I don’t want that statement to remain a truth. Sure, the tiger has been gnawing on your foot for centuries now, but shrugging your shoulders and saying “I’m used to it” won’t stop the tiger from swallowing you whole.
This common response amongst liberals grandstanding tragedy and immorality as they prioritize being perceived as “woke” rather than actually pushing for any change is the rhetorical equivalent of proclaiming, “It’s not that bad.” As writer William K. Wolfrum once wrote, “The road to fascism is paved with people telling you to stop overreacting,” and, as the joke goes, liberals handing guns over to fascists. But my criticisms of Congressional Democrats are for another day.
This is not me professing I don’t understand the lack of shock in the wake of dramatic government overhaul. We as humans thrive off of data and patterns. We were even given a whole fucking handbook to know what to expect going into Trump’s second presidency. But if we — in the face of attacks to equality and freedom — only respond to profess that we, so smart and all, are aware of America’s history of attacking equality and freedom, all we are doing is continuing to allow oppression to be emblematic of the American present rather than viewing it as a contrastive marker to show us how much change we are capable of making in the here and now. We need to continue being shocked and disgusted at attacks to democracy, equality, and freedom rather than sitting in the slow-boiling pot explaining to each other how it has always been warm. Otherwise future generations will continue adjusting to the rising temperatures, looking back upon us now, saying, “It was bad then, too.”
Don’t let it be that way. Our grief and hope can coexist while still staying informed. Spending our time intellectualizing the downfall is not going to stop anyone from tumbling over the edge. We should always recognize our history and continue learning about our past, but pointing out the parallels and patterns without using the data to inform change in the present is bettering nothing.
Let us not take attacks to democracy lying down, phones in hand, proving to nobodies on social media that we’ve read a textbook before. Oppression was unacceptable then and it’s unacceptable now on the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence from Britain.
It is critical that we keep screaming for a present and future that is safe and nourishing for ourselves and our neighbors before the children of tomorrow grow up and look back wondering why we kept letting the tiger gnaw.
S.L. Kletz 
Leave a comment