Happy birthday, America!
My mom made this for me for the 200th anniversary*:
I will have my 50-star flag out on the flag pole. Of course. And I bought the most eye-catching 250 shirt I could find.
It is hard not to be an optimist about America.
My grandparents came here from Ireland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. One grandfather served in World War I and the other served on the Mexican border mission prior to World War I; my parents (my dad was barely old enough to enlist in the Navy in World War II) built a solid blue collar life for me and my siblings in a deteriorating Detroit, and told me I should go to college; I became the first in my family (with two brothers serving during the Vietnam War, one serving in Vietnam) to go to college (with a side trip to the Army National Guard that somehow didn’t send me to the Persian Gulf) and then got out of Detroit for a white collar career; and my children have opportunity to thrive (one with a PhD and the other in medical school).
It’s the American dream over four generations. I’d have to be an ungrateful moron not to be an optimist! Or to fail to love this country which provides such opportunity.
I don't understand how people's patriotism can vary depending on what party holds the White House. Mine has never varied one bit based on mere politicians. Our country is far more than who we select to sit in the Oval Office. If your patriotism varies by that metric, you love your party and not your country.
Perhaps watch this if you hate your own country and can't bring yourself to celebrate this grand day:
Or you can read the 1917 original here.
I assume I will make it to celebrate 275. But absent serious advances in medical science, 300 is right out.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: You may also like to read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved. Go ahead and subscribe to it. It's the right thing to do!
NOTE: It is actually pretty big. It is stretched across my small sofa for the picture. I have taken it to every place I have lived since heading off to college. Thanks, mom! May she rest in peace.
