The First Letter: The Fourth of July

 My Dear Ms. Liberty,

It's only fitting that I begin my new blog, Letters to Ms Liberty, with Postscripts from Mona on the Fourth of July. This celebration is also known as Independence Day. This day marks the formal declaration in 1776 that established the United States as an independent nation. 

I originally wrote this on July 2, 2022. As you can read, not much has changed in those three years. People are still selecting which Amendment of the Constitution and Bible passage they will conveniently follow, or at the very least remind the rest of us of the ones we must follow.

Let me present a platter of Fourth of July memories tossed with a sprinkle of history, and a side order of rant:

My Fourth of July will be a celebration of one being attached to a surgical tube that is hooked to a machine that beeps at me when I move “funny,” and frankly? One of the most important reasons for not celebrating this Independence Day is that, as a woman and on behalf of other women, their “independence” on body autonomy was recently stripped away by a group of men. We watched America slip backward 50 years. However, I won’t let those nasty old b@stards ruin my day as I will cherish the memories of Independence Days of the past.

Growing up, the Fourth of July was a backyard family event with Dad dusting off the old grill, opening a new bag of briquettes, and on the grill, he would fire up hamburger patties, local Hill’s Meat hot dogs, and sometimes add pork chops. He would buy a six-pack of Olympia beer for the long weekend or holiday and nurse on a beer here and there, or perhaps pour tall cool glasses of gin and tonics with a slice of lime. The more gin and tonics Dad would sip, the more he would flirt with Mom. She would respond with a giggle, "Oh Mac... " Dad was one of the few people on this earth who could make Mom laugh. The day before the holiday, Mom stayed busy in the kitchen preparing potato salad, baked beans, sometimes a Jello fruit salad (so 1950s-60s), a platter of sliced Walla Walla Sweet Onions and tomatoes, and the first fruit cobbler of the season or a frosted layer cake.

Sometimes Aunt Ginny visited us from Phoenix for the Fourth of July holiday. This meant Aunt Ginny would pack a box of sparklers for us to light and celebrate. Aunt Ginny was 97 years old when she passed away on July 3, 2019. In her honor, my sisters and I bought a box of sparklers and, with the bright gold flames, wrote Ginny’s name into the dark sky.

Currently, something is troubling me about America the Beautiful. Her inhabitants are selectively interpreting and adding to our Constitution, incorporating Biblical elements that our Founding Fathers did not include. First of all, it is important to understand that Democrats also own guns, fly the American flag, and enjoy country-western music. These three things are not an exception to one party. Could the difference be that a lot of Democrats don’t talk much about their guns or use them as an extension of their genitals?

Democrats typically fly their flag from their porch stoop, not from the back of their mammoth trucks. (Yes, Democrats also own mammoth trucks.) Democrats also seem a tad bit more anal about following the U.S. Code Title 36, Chapter 10, §176; and not wearing the image of the US flag on their mankinis. And speaking of country-western music, recently, a so-called entertainer visited our area, created division, and riled up his audience with dangerous rhetoric. He yelled from the mic that Democrats were the enemies, suggested it was time for a civil war, and hinted the enemy should be destroyed. Hopefully, his liability insurance is up to date, as one of his twisted fans might follow the musician's rant. The real management’s stupidity is that, at the end of the day, Republican and Democrat dollars all look alike.

There’s a representative, a self-proclaimed patriot from Colorado, who says, “I'm tired of this separation of church and state junk.” Junk, she calls it? The “junk” was written by our Founding Fathers. Perhaps the representative in Congress needs to read up on Thomas Jefferson. You see, there’s a reason why the Framers and the English religious reformers (Pilgrims and Puritans. You will know them by the large buckles on their shoes) left England. They understood the importance of no national church and no government involvement in religion. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison believed that without separating church from state, there could be no real religious freedom.

Hate to break it to some of you, but Baby Jesus is not written into our Constitution. The Constitution does not endorse Christianity. Remember, the reason why the Founders left England? The controversial phrase “under God” was not always part of the Pledge of Allegiance. It was added by law on June 14, 1954. God is a rather broad term as the noun is used not just in Christianity, but in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Greek mythology. " Lord" is also a broad term, not limited to the Bible, and is often used as an authoritative title or to acknowledge a legacy.

The rants of “bringing prayer back to school” seem odd, considering the majority of us never prayed in public schools. So, if we bring back prayer in the public settings and assume they will be Christian prayers, will we also allow and respect the public prayers of our Islam, Hindu, and Sikh tax-paying neighbors?

The self-proclaimed patriots are now selectively choosing which Amendments they will and will not acknowledge, and have recently been selective with biblical commandments. For now, the only Amendment they’re acknowledging is the Second while ignoring or being combative over the First.

The self-proclaimed patriot has denigrated a biracial man for using his First Amendment rights by taking a knee on the football field during the Pledge of Allegiance. The same self-proclaimed patriot is cheering on a white male high school football coach who prayed at the 50-yard line after games, ruling that his public prayers were protected as free speech and free exercise of religion. Would the same “free speech” be protected if the man prayed to Allah on the 50-yard line?

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.” – Matthew 6:5

This long weekend Americans are celebrating this holiday, the Fourth of July, by claiming it is their “God-given right” with their weapons of war that outgun the police that the patriots claim they respect (Blue Lives Matter), lighting fireworks made in China (not America), mixing Biblical quotes with our Constitution while praying over their Fourth of July BBQ feast of pork ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, and good ol’ smoked pork sausages.

“And the pig, though he divide the hoof and be cloven-footed, yet he chews not the cud; he is unclean to you.” - Leviticus 11:7

Happy Fourth of July, and may your sparklers be seen from the heavens. 

Love ya, 
C~