Is it just me or does anyone else feel like celebrating July 4th is a moot point

[mdbl]

while living under a wannabe dicktator king and his oppressive lying minions?

[chicoescuela]

1. I understand the sentiment. I feel the party is over

[Irish_Dem]

2. It is a day of grieving the loss of our democracy and country.

[Skittles]

3. I will NOT let these repukes take everything

I will be displaying my flag

[pacalo]

16. That's the way I felt about Christmas, right after the election.

The neighbors across the street are Magats & they know we're Democrats but we're on good terms (with minimal conversation). They always decorate their entire front yard, while we usually don't. As depressed as I was inside, I was determined to rise above and decorate our front yard -- I know how much pleasure Magats take in seeing Democrats get the short end. I have to say, it did raise my spirits.

[Attilatheblond]

36. I didn't put out all my Christmas decorations and no tree inside last December

But my large scale Halloween decorations will go on as planned this fall, with my usual display saluting the Mexican traditions for Dia de Los Muetros as part of my pagan celebration display. The Hispanic kids in my neighborhood always appreciate it, but not nearly as much as I appreciate them and the many ways they have welcomed us 'white people' into their traditions, lands, and loving families.

[Tree Lady]

21. Exactly why I wore my flag

Shirt to protest few weeks ago and have my July 4th flag of dog holding flag with sparklers in front of house.

I got a pedicure few days ago and guy next to me said are you getting maga colors, and I said so whole room heard, no I am getting democrat colors since its my flag too!

I was expecting some flack since I live in red city blue state but it started a whole discussion on how horrible Trump is.

We have to have courage.

[Skittles]

24. OUTSTANDING

[Xavier Breath]

4. Too many MAGAt idiots around me to not hear fireworks constantly.

Some idiot not far enough away for my liking was setting them off last night, a full week out. Guessing they'll start up again any minute now

And no, I won't be celebrating in any form or fashion.

[calimary]

18. Somebody across the river just gave the area a brief earful.

Seems it was done safely, though.

We have LOTS of trees in this area, and I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE ‘em all! But at the same time, I swear - I worry about them every day.

[Jack Valentino]

25. Guess I should not have worried about taking a single .16 gauge shotgun blast

against the groundhog who has been "obliterating" my garden the past several years,
whom I have nicknamed "TRUMP"....

Would have been "too loud" within city limits where using a firearm is against the law,
but who can tell one illegal blast from another, and would have finished the job in one shot--
and been more merciful than .177 air-rifle pellets which didn't kill it immediately...
and maybe not at all, as far as I know... I've shot it TWICE now,
but it ran back to its hole afterwards.... I hope it went to its eternal rest there, this time.

(sorry, normally I love animals and wildlife, but I have a vendetta against this animal...
but have now installed a "motion-activated sprinkler" which should now protect my garden
from all pests, 24-7.....
In an amusing circumstance earlier tonight,
after working in the garden for a while,
I thought I was finished, and turned the water back on....
then decided to pull a few more weeds,
and was caught in my own water-gun trap at close range! LOL
I had a few "choice words" but shortly afterwards laughed at myself!)

[dflprincess]

5. I usually observe the day by watching "1776"

I don't think I can do it this year.

[elleng]

19. So do I. MAY be able to find it somewhere;

don't want to let 'them' to ruin my life entirely.

[Xavier Breath]

30. 1776 will be on TCM Friday, July 4, at 10:30 PM EDT.

I hope 98-year-old William Daniels will be able to tune in.

[elleng]

38. GREAT!!! THANKS!!!!

Feel sorry for Daniels, he so should have WON awards for his great work in that movie.

[Jack Valentino]

26. I love "1776" now, but the first time I saw it, I was offended by Jefferson's

preoccupation with sex.... as portrayed in the movie.

'Course, it was on a 7th-grade field trip,
and I thought they portrayed him as some kind of sex maniac---

that was well before my own 'awakening'.....

So now I am very amused at the way I took offense at that...

[Xavier Breath]

31. In his defense, he was married to a 28-year-old Blythe Danner, so I'll cut him some slack.

[Mark.b2]

7. I was a bit that way, but my son wanted to go buy fireworks today...

and I took him. $92 later, and I kind of got in the mood. Afterwards, making a stop to stock up on Fat Tire, Goose Island and Tito’s may have helped!

My sister has her kids this weekend meaning we have to celebrate this weekend meaning I’ll likely end up back at the fireworks tent before the 4th. I’ll be doing my part to support the economy this holiday!

[sinkingfeeling]

8. I sure won't be celebrating. The country foreseen in 1776 is gone.

[Xavier Breath]

37. Dreading the 250th celebration next year with him at the helm.

The mind reels at the possibilities.

[Timewas]

9. You are not alone

Nothing to celebrate anymore.

[Sympthsical]

10. I am going to have a blast on Fourth of July

Making double time at work while watching episodes of True Detective.

Best holiday ever.

[dameatball]

11. No plans. No parades. Maybe I'll eat a hot dog, putter around and have some quiet respect for the holiday.

[Chilopsis]

12. Resist

The Forth is a good day for us to reaffirm our faith in the Constitution and the Democratic Republic we are trying to save. Indivisable and other local resistance orgs will be hosting an observance in Joshua Tree, Ca.

I encourage you to find a similar gathering near where you live and attend. It's an opportunity to celebrate America with like minded Americans! Let's show 'em what democracy looks like!

[blubunyip]

13. Won't be celebrating

Will be resisting

[BlueTsunami2018]

14. I just enjoy my family and friends at a bbq.

I don’t necessarily celebrate the holiday.

Flavor Flav mentioned this years ago.

[Takket]

15. i don't feel any desire to watch a celebration of ideals that no longer exist.

[Skittles]

17. then use it as a reminder of what we are fighting for

[Nictuku]

20. We should hold events across the country Reading Out Loud the Delecaration of Independence

People will be shocked by how many of the old bullet points they - made against the Monarchy - where the People were Wronged - fit today's situation.

Full Text Here:
https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/resources/text

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.
He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.
He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

[elleng]

23. Thanks, I usually do that.

'Sit down, John'

AND

Molasses to Run to Slavery

[slightlv]

22. I won't be celebrating... no money for fireworks, even if I wanted 'em.

Usually by this time, the air is full of smoke and thundering sounds; not this year. I'm assuming the price of fireworks has gone up enough to finally impact the firebugs around me, but we'll see. I don't see much to "celebrate" this year. I see more cause to mourn than anything else. We've decided to do a reading of the Declaration and the Constitution between the two of us, and talk of better days that could come and how we'd like to coordinate a Reconciliation committee.

For the sake of my dog, I hope it's a fairly quiet affair that day/night. No more of those fireworks that sounds like bombs dropping in the backyard.

For the sake of my cats, I'd like a fairly quiet day/night of cuddling and snuggling, and not being ripped to shreds by tiny murder paws as the long string of blackcats screech through the night.

[Jack Valentino]

27. I would LIKE to celebrate this July 4th by "shooting off some fireworks"---

I cannot be more specific than that---

That is all.


(Oh, and I don't own any such "fireworks" that I would consider 'adequate for the job',
and have no plans or prospects for obtaining any such---
think I will hide in my house. )

[live love laugh]

28. I'm MORE inclined to fly the flag to show that I love America 🇺🇸 and the

cabal can’t take that away from me.

[mucholderthandirt]

32. I'll be remembering the America that was once the great hope of generations.

The America that was a beacon to the world. The country many of us tried to make it, tried to get it to live up to the hype.

I mourn that nation. It's dead, it's memory besmirched, sullied by fascists, the very kind of people we fought to destroy not that long ago.

But I also remember! I remember that we got rid of Hitler, and others like him. We fought to bring liberty to many who never had it. We fought to make the world a better place. We weren't perfect, but we tried. When we didn't let money in, we did good.

So, a memorial service for a once great nation, or a nation on the path to being truly great, if you wish.

Signed,

a veteran, a daughter, granddaughter, niece and cousin of veterans

[Ping Tung]

33. "Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about." Mark Twain

[purple_haze]

34. I will 100% be celebrating

Celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the creation of an albeit imperfect nation? Yes, I will be celebrating.

[Tribetime]

35. Yep ...I won't celebrate, I feel like flying the flag upside down

[KnoxVol]

39. It's kind of like what they did with the Gadsden flag

After the Tea Party and Trump 1, it became a symbol of idiocy and feeble-mindedness, not to mention hate and all that.

To me, it’s more of a symbol of liberation and freedom in the face of a monarch. To say that our rights will not be trampled on. It was one of, if not the most important flags of the revolution. I’ve been pondering a lot lately about how that flag stands more for what we are enduring as Americans with a pseudo-monarch than whatever tripe the right wing has associated with it over the years.

With that as the backdrop, it feels they have been doing the same with July 4th and other American holidays. I can understand why people feel like why celebrate - I get that way myself - but I’ll celebrate and remember the good that is our country and all that it should stand for.

[DFW]

40. I'll celebrate because of the words of a 33 year old man born in Virginia, as was I

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
------------------------------------------------
That to secure these [certain unalienable Rights], Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Last November, all who did not vote, and now regret it, or voted third party and now regret it, or even voted Republican, and now regret it--these people neglected to their duty, to both themselves, as citizens, and to the rest of us, to whom they, as fellow citizens, owed this debt, this duty.

To all who now say, "this is not what I was voting for," and now face deportation, illegal arrest, death due to lack of medication or food, aid or housing, I say, yes, this was exactly what you were voting for. It was your RIGHT to vote as you did, but it was your DUTY to research and expect the consequences. Jefferson chose his words carefully. These words, not those of some religious text or party platform, are the basis on which this country originated. I don't care HOW much dust has collected on that parchment in the meantime. I celebrate that Declaration as the basis for MY national identity, no matter how much they may get perverted by those whose whose goals may be the opposite. Maybe it's easier to feel this way from a safe distance. There is room for speculation on that. But in a couple of weeks, my wife and I will head to Massachusetts for a much-needed vacation, as we have done for over forty years. If we are given a hard time at the border, which I do not anticipate, I will consider those giving us that hard time to be the perversion of America, not ourselves. They probably think of Thomas Jefferson no further than being the man whose face is on the nickel and the two dollar bill. I think of Jefferson as the reason they have a job in the first place.