The 4th brings us back to each other
MADISON, Wis. - The fireworks from here to Washington sang of a country renewing its place in the world - and its sense of self. It was the most meaningful Fourth of July in memory, six months after the armed mob stormed the Capitol.
Democracy is making a remarkable recovery.
Seeing people in person again - like family - after 18 months was a shared experience for millions. Travel was hard, but the pandemic made pilgrims of us all.
Hardship darkened our doors and lives for so long that the Fourth was a light in the distance.
The genial Bidens hosted 1,000 people to celebrate. I heard several say what a salve it is to witness a warm family in the White House.
On her way out, Melania Trump destroyed the Rose Garden. With two weeks in his waning presidency, Donald Trump almost murdered American optimism and faith in government institutions and norms.
A peaceful transfer of power was under fire.
A wounded national spirit can't be tried in court, and we need it back. If you think back to the 20th century, optimism was once unquenchable.
So, we missed the Village Dance but enjoyed the Fourth of July in this Midwestern gem set on Lake Mendota. There was the 1929 vintage fire engine, the parade and the pool.
Competition was fierce in the egg toss. Good old-fashioned fun.
Like 40 million fellow travelers, I saw my family for the first time in 18 months on the holiday. We all changed in ways that can't be captured in texts and Zoom calls during the pandemic.
Children grew and adults, too, had COVID-19 written on their faces or waistlines. The psychological returns aren't in yet. Let's say we have a fresh gratitude for human company after a social famine.
"Come join the fun and bring your neighbors, family, friends or total strangers." That's from the village news of a "normal celebration!"
That's it right there. The American spirit distilled into one sentence. We are by nature outgoing and outspoken people. It was hard to be kept apart, and devastating that loved ones were lost.
"It's so great to see other people," said Lila, a West High school student who works at the pool. As we spoke, the place was jammed with a mosaic of people sunning, swimming, playing, diving.
The teen came up to me to chat, with an open smile. I didn't know her, but it was a pleasure to talk to someone I didn't know by the bubbler.
My parents went to West. I once walked in the children's parade as the Statue of Liberty. My grandfather volunteered as a village ambulance driver. The village has a wildflower prairie garden. We moved west when I was 8, but I love Madison and its story still.
On my visit, I hear of the glacier that covered and shaped this land about 14,000 years ago.
The glacier's marks and stones give me a sense of history coming and going. The Black Hawk Indians lived here, too.
In 2021, not all is rosy, to be clear. This is not exactly another Era of Good Feelings. The hard feelings in the Capitol between Democrats and Republicans run rampant.
President Biden just ended a futile, lost war in Afghanistan after 20 years. What happens there now? Back to the Taliban.
Major infrastructure bills are now up in the Senate air. Lawmakers come back to work next week.
Voting rights are in peril, as a recent Supreme Court ruling shows. We are only starting to see what damage the three young justices named by Trump will do.
Oh, there is one more thing. Trump declared he'll be "reinstated" in August. That's next month. This may be idle chatter, but his threats about January 6 turned out to be true.
He incited and invited violence once and could do it twice.
We can't take anything for granted, for better or worse, now, not friends, family nor foes.
The Village Dance, "a great multi-generational event" will end, as always, with the FULL version of 'American Pie.'"
John Adams, who invented the Fourth's traditions, should come to Madison sometime.
© 2021, Creators