Looking At The Good, The Bad And The (Oh So) Ugly On July 4th

I went to a flower show in Westhampton, Long Island a few days ago. It was after a  nice, leisurely lunch with my husband. Joe had a burger (without the bun) and I had a delicious grilled shrimp and avocado salad. We were at Dockers, a pretty restaurant that sits on the Bay across from the Ocean.

It’s a good way to spend a summer day. It gets you out of the house, and away from  all the bad and ugly news — of which there is so much at the moment. Last year at this time, coming up on America’s birthday, I had to remind myself of what is still beautiful about this country by looking back to a cross-country bus trip I took decades ago.

This year I’m posting pretty photos of the exhibits at the flower show staged by the Westhampton Garden Club

Otherwise, I’d have to pause this July 4th  and ask: What has become of you, America? Thing is, I only need look back on the most recent week to stare aghast and ask:

America , are you really a country where a Department of Justice lawyer could not bring herself to agree that children need, at least, a toothbrush, soap and a blanket in the cages where they’re being kept by the federal government.

Sarah Fabian told a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that maintaining “safe and sanitary” conditions as required by law for children separated from their parents on our border “maybe” included toothbrushes, toothpaste and blankets.

When the judge asked “Why do you say, maybe? You mean there’s circumstances when a person doesn’t need to have a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap for days?” Fabian doubled down on the indefensible.

Her reply?  “It may be that for a shorter-term stay in C.B.P. (the Customs and Border Protection agency) some of those things may not be required.”

Or, I could ask: America, are you really a country that’s going to re-elect a president whose main defense to an allegation that he raped a journalist in the dressing room of an upscale Fifth Avenue store is : “She’s not my type?”

Did anyone think this ugly, fat, ignorant misogynist was joking when he boasted about “grabbing women by the pussy?” Obviously, he wasn’t joking. It’s just that they have to be his type.

As Alexandra Petri wrote in The Washington Post about this week’s latest revelations: “There is a door in my head behind which I am screaming all the time.”

She speaks for so many of us. The more fortunate among us can cocoon ourselves somewhat; we can look away, at least briefly, from the ugliness that’s being heaped on us every single week the way it was last week.

And, the way it will be this week when this pathetic excuse for a president appropriates Lincoln’s statue as a backdrop for his speech —  for his “spectacular act of self-flattery” — during the July 4th firework extravaganza in Washington D.C.

It’s just becoming harder and harder to feel any joy in one’s heart as the time rolls around again to say Happy July 4th, Happy Birthday, America.

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Looking At The Good, The Bad And The (Oh So) Ugly On July 4th”

    1. Eldon, I’m not the one to answer that question. I didn’t think he could seriously be elected in 2016. And, look what happened!!!!

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