what are they celebrating?

The acrid aroma of matches and spent fireworks is thick in the air. I've lived here for 18 years, and I don't recall a 4th with this much celebratory gunfire and fireworks. I wonder, what are my neighbors celebrating?

I'll not celebrate Independence Day, as so many American lives are taken by the virus running unchecked in our republic, and by the atrocities of social injustice. At this moment, we are anything but independent.

In honor of what ideal do we send up those streamers? Under what illuminated sky do we live?

What are our hopes and dreams for this country and, do those dreams apply to every person, regardless of gender or color or station in life? Who do we hope to be? What is the dream we're celebrating?

If any one of us is not free, none of us are free.

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