From the pages of The New York Times comes this. Americans are “rethinking” the Fourth of July? Why, you ask? Let’s count the reasons some Americans are going without celebrating the Red, White and Blue.

The story starts out in Atlanta with a young woman by the name of Malaya Tapp. She remembers the fireworks and the food but now says the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots-err-movement had her rethinking lots of things about this great country of ours:

I lost a lot of my patriotic feelings. It’s hard to tell the difference between guns and fireworks, and here there is always something on the news about a shooting or something, so it makes me nervous,” she said. “They are also bad for the environment. They release a lot of toxic chemicals.”-Malaya Tapp

Malaya Tapp is an incoming college freshman in this Land of Opportunity. She is “skipping the holiday altogether” because, my God-fireworks sound so much like gunshots! It’s just not palatable anymore.

We travel to Manhattan to hear the opinion of 29 year-old, Marissa Vivori, 29, a tech product manager. Marissa found the holiday painful and inconvenient. On the Fourth of July, she was forced to be next to a packed Long Island Railroad train car with tons of other Americans who were going out to The Hamptons for the holiday.

I didn’t get a seat and I was standing in the aisle, and the toilet overflowed, and we all had to hold our bags.”-Marissa Vivori

(Sniffle, sniffle.) Oh! The sheer oppressiveness that is The Fourth of July en route to The Hamptons! She had to hold her bags! But that’s not the only reason Ms. Vivori is forfeiting The Fourth:

Last summer Roe v. Wade was overturned, and that really made me less inclined to celebrate.”-Marissa Vivori

She sounds like the life of any party, doesn’t she? The Supreme Court made it less possible to take away the freedoms of the unborn. This made Miss Marissa “less inclined” to celebrate. Let’s think about that for a moment. What is Marissa doing instead of schlepping to The Hamptons? She is hopping on a jet and going abroad, apparently. In fact, according to the article, she will be in Great Britain on The Fourth of July and “the irony is not lost on her”.

Good. Now, stay there, Ms. Vivori.

Alyson Krueger of The New York Times continues this snapshot of young Americans with a trip to Brooklyn where Allison Bartella is “saying no to a holiday she never loved”.

The food is always sitting out in the sun, and it’s hot, and you are getting scared by random fireworks in the street, and it just doesn’t turn out how you want it to be.”-Allison Bartella

Can’t celebrate your freedoms and the greatest country ever when the food is sitting out in the sun. Speaking of the hot, hot sun, The New York Times takes us to Phoenix to get 28 year-old, Conner Miskowiec’s take:

I think a lot of people think America isn’t for everyone anymore, and so it’s not an inclusive holiday.”-Conner Miskowiec

Miskowiec is a content creator on Instagram and TikTok and has asked people of all ages their opinions on The Fourth of July:

https://www.tiktok.com/@convoswithconjay/video/7250890786852785454?lang=en

It is not just young people who are abstaining from Independence Day. Some of the 40-somethings are joining in. Let’s touch down in Seattle, 16R:

It is very challenging going into the Fourth of July due to the Supreme Court Decisions. They also came down on some tough decisions at the same time last year, and it made it very difficult to celebrate.”-Issac Norbe

For Issac, he does admit that the Fourth of July is about celebrating one’s community and celebrating everyone. At least he recognizes that. But for most of the wacky people in Seattle-land, I would be willing to bet that they would abstain. It’s cool. They can stay double-masked and stay the hell home and reflect upon their white privilege while sitting on the stolen native land of Seattle that has been trashed by homeless drug addicts and criminals, for all we care. Isn’t it great to have that choice? Side note: these same people probably thought the CHOP was a “wonderful, beautiful experiment”. Summer of luvvvvvvv.

Back to Atlanta, Georgia, and more of Malaya Tapp:

I know a lot of people who feel they have to partake in all the events, and they have to show their patriotism just to fit in or not have people get mad at them. A lot of people get really defensive when you say you don’t want to celebrate the Fourth of July because they think you don’t care about soldiers who died or all the things that went into making this country.

It’s very much a controversial holiday now. We all have to decide for ourselves if we want to celebrate.”-Malaya Tapp

Well, it’s a good thing you’re not walking in lock step in North Korea on The Day of The Sun, Ms. Tapp. You DO get to choose to abstain. You DO get to speak your mind. Ironically, the very choice to abstain and to speak out is the very reason we celebrate Independence Day here in this great country. It is the very reason you all get to complain about oppression (yet go to college), noisy fireworks that (gasp!) sound like gunshots, or bitch and moan about crowded trains to The Hamptons and overflowing toilets. It is the very reason you all can complain about Supreme Court decisions and break windows of urban businesses in anger and outrage. Food (that may have been sitting out in the sun) for thought.

And while our country is not so great because we have leadership that is stinking it up, it is, still the greatest country in the world-even if some of the writers and readers of The New York Times believe otherwise.

Featured Image: Gay Street, Knoxville, Tennessee by Toni S. Williams/cropped/All Rights Reserved

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