Yesterday I had decided that there was little to celebrate. I told Jadyne that I didn’t want the flag up because I was both ashamed and embarrassed by Trump and the kowtowing Republicans who had signed on to kiss Trump’s ass and pass his “Big Beautiful Bill,” a plan that, among other things, removes billions from Medicaid and at the same time reduces the taxes on the very wealthy and adds trillions to the national debt.
I changed my mind. I didn’t want the Republicans to take ownership of the flag. I posted this on Facebook:
The writer Anne Lamott posted this in the Washington Post: “Anyone paying close attention to the news might well ask themselves what on earth there is to celebrate this Fourth of July. But we must celebrate, or they win, in the paranoid sense of “they.” They want the day, but we can’t let them have it. Independence Day is America’s day. Sure, we bleeding-heart nervous cases are teetering on the edge of despair, but that is exactly why I am calling for us to move into a new phase of resistance: hope and joy. In ghastly times, these are subversive.”
Later in the morning Jadyne and I went to a park in El Cerrito where festivities were in full swing. Shortly after we arrived Senator Adam Schiff showed up and spoke to the crowd for a couple of minutes. When he left the stage I followed him. Jay and I corralled him for about five minutes, thanking him for all that he’s done for America. I told him that I wasn’t giving up ownership of the flag to those who desecrate what it stands for, choosing instead to fly it proudly and resist those who didn’t live up to the values that it represents, those who were trashing it, meaning the President and the Republicans in Congress.
