Independence Day, 2020

Somehow, “Happy Fourth of July” doesn’t seem quite right this year. Ron Elving’s NPR essay captures the dissonance many of us feel on the holiday. Here is the part of the brief essay and a link to the remainder.

People once wished each other well on Independence Day by saying: "Have a glorious Fourth!"

A bit antique, perhaps, in the best of times, but a phrase you still heard. Until now.

Can you imagine well-wishers offering that sentiment this weekend, without a trace of irony or a wistful look?

Not likely, not in the summer of 2020, the summer of resurgent COVID-19 cases, of restaurants and beaches that had reopened only to close again – of workers recently returned to work who have been laid off again.

Not likely for those out of work or fearing the loss of work. Just in time for our national birthday, the U.S. set a new record for new cases of the virus in a single day with more than 50,000. (Thursday's jobs report had some good news, but economists warned the back-to-work trend of early June had already been reversed.)

Not likely in the many states where new infection rates are the highest the virus was first named. Nor in places where "hot spots" have turned into overcrowded hospitals and morgues.

Nor is celebration likely in the cities where racial unrest has continued since the killing of George Floyd on May 25. More than on any other Fourth in memory, African Americans are asking the question Frederick Douglass made famous when he asked it in 1852 – "Independence for whom?"

This summer, that question hangs in the air like the aftertaste of tear gas.
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But flag-waving dogs and seasonal garden bouquets—we can all celebrate those.