7.5.24

Cause you are the government

You are jurisprudence

You are the volition

You are jurisdiction

And I make a difference too

It was a surreal 4th of July this year.

Trying to figure out what was being celebrated. If there was something to be celebrated. Were we celebrating independence as a thing we have or a thing we had? Were the fireworks an acknowledgment of democratic rule, or were they pomp and circumstance for sending American democracy on to Valhalla?

I never did put my finger on it, so I stuck with the most tried and true way I know of marking Independence Day: watching Jaws.

This morning I woke up no more certain of anything than I’d been the night before.

Except maybe that I’d rather take my chances with a great white than with the Supreme Court.

Anyway, I’m worried — scared, really — about things. This country of ours is in uncharted territory, and it feels like quite a few people don’t really grasp the scope of what’s going on. I’m seeing and hearing lots of “I don’t like to get involved in politics” and “This really doesn’t change anything for me.”

As my man Howard Zinn once said, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train,” and that’s especially true when that train starts careening off a cliff.

Neutrality is tantamount to approval, and neutrality toward what has happened in our country this week is approval of rule by a king and his slightest whims.

Tonight’s song is a reminder that we are our government (hopefully still), and I hope more of us start taking on that important responsibility.