I celebrated the Fourth of July this week with friends from all around the world.
There were natural-born Americans, of course, but also friends from Singapore, Iraq, even Britain.
As we watched the fireworks over the river we raised a glass to this country that had brought us all together: a great occasion, to celebrate a great country.
Of course, not everyone thinks that.
I turned off social media on the evening itself so I couldn’t see the inevitable efforts to pee on the parade.
But I caught up with them later.
You’ve probably seen some of them yourself.
There were the stupid corporates, of course.
Ben & Jerry’s continue their mission to be the world’s most annoying (as well as worst) ice cream.
According to the company’s official account the Fourth of July is not a day to celebrate, but rather high time to “recognize that the US exists on stolen indigenous land and commit to returning it.”
If this is stolen land then I would like to see Ben & Jerry’s return some of their stolen cows.
Perhaps the indigenous owners can do a better job at keeping lethal weedkiller out of their ice cream than Ben & Jerry’s has done?
And perhaps unlike Unilever — parent company of Ben & Jerry’s — the indigenous people won’t face claims that they avoided millions of dollars in taxes.
But the ice cream idiots were just doing what so many corporates do now.
Distracting from tax-dodging accusations and other nefarious activities by attacking “systemic racism” and America.
Other groups like the ACLU actually make their money by insulting this country.
They raise funds from Americans to tell Americans how appalling they are.
This week the group tweeted out, “Since the nation’s founding, the fabric of American society has been woven with deeply racist policies that directly harm Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.” Happy Fourth of July from the ACLU, everyone!
But of course as is so often the case, it was the Democrats who did the best America-hating.
As usual, Rep. Cori Bush could be relied on to give the worst anti-American coating to everything.
This Fourth, she announced, “The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human. Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now [black fist emoji].” I look forward to seeing Cori Bush trying to collect reparations. If she does a DNA test she will most likely discover that her ancestors include slavers and slave-owners — that is, people who bought and sold black Africans.
On and on the anti-American dolts went, like a group of automatons set off by a central command. Rep. Jamaal Bowman tweeted out: “This July 4th, we must remember that we stand on stolen land toiled by enslaved Africans and recommit ourselves to the fight for freedom, equality, & justice so that these ideals are accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few. We are not free until everyone is truly free.”
‘I don’t care for equality’
The banalities never cease.
Who are you meant to give this “stolen land” back to? Would you mind if they immediately covered it in casinos? Would that be social justice?
And what does being “free” even mean in Rep. Bowman’s eyes? It would seem that it means “until everyone is equal.” Well I have news for Bowman. That is never going to happen.
Personally I don’t much care for equality.
Equality in the eyes of God is a central idea. Equality before the law is one of the greatest ideas of mankind — one of the greatest things that America gives to her citizens.
Equality of opportunity would be a good thing, but at the moment as always, there are shifting hierarchies.
Today anyone who can claim to have suffered (without having actually done so) is definitely at the top of that hierarchy.
But it is so strange, and un-American, this idea that everybody should actually be equal.
We don’t expect it in sports, for instance, so why expect it in economics?
Perhaps an awareness that they are in an actual elite is what makes some sports personalities behave so especially rudely toward this country.
To such an extent that they actually spit on it.
Take WNBA player Natasha Cloud.
This is what she said last week: “Our country is trash in so many ways and instead of using our resources to make it better we continue to oppress Marginalized groups that we have targeted since the beginning of times. Black/brown communities& LGBTQ+ man we are too powerful to still be attacking issues separate.”
‘It is a sickness’
Cloud may boast about being proudly gay and black, but she should work at being proudly literate as well at some point. And perhaps learning some history into the bargain.
Personally I should think that if you had asked the Founding Fathers where they stood on the issues of trans, queer and nonbinary people they might have looked at you in a funny way.
Thomas Jefferson himself would have been stumped.
But people like Cloud simply don’t know what they are talking about.
She just hopes that she can enjoy the great wealth, opportunity and fame that America has brought her while all the time trashing the country.
It is a sickness of our time, this — but one in which America now sadly leads the world.
Most countries in the world don’t have leading politicians, profitable “nonprofits” and sports stars who spit on the country that has created them and nurtured them.
Today America remains the number one destination in the world for people wishing to leave their own country and make a better life.
As my circle of friends the other night proved.
What a shame that it is some of the people who have been born and raised here who take America — its opportunities and freedoms — the most for granted.
The rest of the world, I can assure them, does not.
