Celebrating a country I’m not that proud of right now

This post came from my Tumblr blog in July 2020.

What I like about this graphic I made (using Adobe Spark) is how big the words “FOR ALL” are. This country has never, not once in its history, offered liberty and justice for all.

I pray that one day, it shall.

This morning, a Twitter friend wrote about how she was having trouble celebrating today when she’s not very proud of our country at the moment. I agreed and said I’d maybe be proud of us in November if we as a nation can get it together and oust this regime of hatred, narcissism, racism, science denial, and selfishness. If we can grow up and acknowledge not only that we haven’t been perfect, but that it’s not enough just to say, “Okay, so we’ve made our mistakes, but who hasn’t? Can we just move on?” No, we cannot just move on. Not when the people who have been so hurt by the powerful of this nation still suffer in ways both small and great.

This nation is not at its best right now. The Civil War was probably our worst, but the terrorism we have inflicted upon black people through lynchings, voter suppression, keeping black people in zoos, and racially motivated police violence suggests we have a long, long way to go.

I’m proud of what we can be when we are at our best. Now, I’m waiting to see if we can at least present some semblance of that promise to the rest of the world come November.

Postscript 2022:

Here's my new image for July celebrations in the foreseeable future:

This is the flag of Canada—that country to our north. I took this image on Canada Day 2017 aboard the ferry from Labrador to Newfoundland.

And this will be my flag for the rest of the year:

Don't Tread On Me flag from "Flags for Good"

In fact, I did not celebrate "Independence" Day this year, and I can't see myself doing so anytime soon, not while women have no bodily autonomy in this country that we stole from Native Americans.

It's not that Canada's history isn't also fraught; it absolutely is. Canada is just beginning to come to terms with its past mistakes as cemeteries full of the remains of indigenous children are uncovered around the country, and the Church is called upon to answer for grievous wrongs resulting from residential schools and other abuses. But (at least at the time of this writing) Canadian women still have the ability to decide whether they want to be pregnant or not. Last time I checked, Canada wasn't being run by a theocracy. It isn't a perfect country, but frankly, it's where half my family is, so that makes it, in a way, mine.