Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit. The life of a man is three-score years and ten: a little more, a little less. The life of a nation is the fullness of the measure of its will to live.

"There are men who doubt this. There are men who believe that democracy, as a form of Government and a frame of life, is limited or measured by a kind of mystical and artificial fate -- that, for some unexplained reason, tyranny and slavery have become the surging wave of the future -- and that freedom is an ebbing tide. But we Americans know that this is not true."

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (b. 1882-01-30, d. 1945-04-12; President of the United States 1933-03-04 to 1945-04-12), Third Inaugural Address, 1941-01-20

I love this nation, this country, land of my birth, whose ideals have been taught to me and at me my entire life, this nation founded on bold principles and has stood up so often for what is-or-could-be good and great in the world. I love this country, and because I love it, I very much want to be proud of it -- for all its historical faults, for all the ways the other key things it was founded on, its original sins of genocide and slavery, and all the ways the habits, attitudes, and poilicies of those have carried forward into my own lifetime -- for all its faults past and present, I still want to be proud of it, to boast of its strengths, its many accomplishments, its ideals. But as much as I love this country, my precious United States, this year I cannot be proud of it. Too many sins -- and sins too huge -- are being committed in our name by our government. The institutions and norms that have kept it robust despite missteps and crimes my country has committed or allowed, and have slowly, slowly steered us closer to the right path over time, are being undermined or simply circumvented and ignored. And we are inflicting vile and inhumane punishments on people whose only "crime" has been to attempt to follow the legal steps to request asylum here in "the land of the free" from horrors in their homelands (many of which horrors our own policies have created or worsened), because policy makers in the executive branch want to make their suffering so bad that they will forget all the promises we've made to the world based on what we want to claim as our ideals, and simply ... suffer and die where they came from. Meanwhile, a corrupt administration is being protected, no matter how transparent its own misbehaviour, by legislators in the President's party who value holding onto power for the sake of power more than they value upholding all of our values or even those values their party claims as its own.

There are people in my country, people who like me are as much a part of this country as a kidney or a lung -- or a leukocyte -- is part of a living human, who are trying to resist and undo these sins, people who are puting their bodies on the line trying to oppose evil done in our name. I am proud of them At the same time, we have Americans preaching a type of anti-Americanism even as they wrap themselves in the flag, who are trying to make things even worse. So: there are Americans I am proud of, and history that is a dissonant jumble of the great things and the evils America has done, and this glorious land, and ideals and principles we claimed, that point to the nation I love being worthy of taking pride in even as we try to make it better ... but this year, under the weight of my country's current sins that history has taught us the consequences of, not just the evil of, alas I cannot be proud of my country -- my country.

On this holiday, normally a day of cheer and closing an eye to our foundational sins and reveling in what we share as Americans, well, enjoy your picnics and your cookouts and your fireworks if you're going to, but this year what I'm feeling is shame for what's being done in our name, and fear of what comes next as the institutions meant to keep us on the right path are being undermined. I am sorry. I want to be proud of my country, my home, my homeland, but right now it's doing too much that I can not be proud of. We are inflicing inhumane conditions on those begging us for safety, we are allowing children to die in our custody, we are pulling support out from under the most vulnerable of our own people ...

I so want to feel the familiar pride on our most license-to-feel-proud day, but this year horror overtakes pride. I am ashamed of what we are doing and afraid of what we may become. I still love this land, but love is not enough to blind me to the shame. I dearly hope that one day I can feel mostly pride in this country of ours again. But I can't today.

There are those among us who "believe [...] tyranny and slavery have become the surging wave of the future -- and that freedom is an ebbing tide," and are actively working to make it so. I do not know that that is not our future, but I still hope it is not our future. I want that pride back.

Jason Chesnut-no-t-in-the-middle (@ crazypastor), 2019-07-03:

When they were approaching Jerusalem, near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, 'Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.

If anyone says to you, "Why are you doing this?" just say this, "The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately."' 'But,' the disciples said, 'why just a colt? Why not something powerful, to show your strength and leadership?'

'Have you been paying attention?' Jesus asked. The disciples stood still, looking dumbfounded. They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street.

As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, 'What are you doing, untying the colt?' They told them what Jesus had said; 'Why just a colt? Isn't he a Lord?' they asked. The disciples shrugged. Then they allowed them to take it.

Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 'Are you sure this is what you want to do?' Peter asked. 'It's not very impressive. We could get you a splendid beast, and put on some armor with swords and spears. THAT would be a parade.'

'Have you been paying attention?' Jesus calmly asked. Then they went on the way. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. No flags, no weapons of war. Just clothes and plants.

Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!'

Then Jesus entered into Jerusalem. On a tiny colt. Across ground strewn with symbols of peace. This is the One of whom our ancestors spoke. This is the Prince of Peace. - Mark 11:1-11, adapted

Matt (@ starmanjack43), just in case anyone didn't quite completely get the point:

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a parade of warhorses, flags and armour marched to demonstrate the power of the Empire. But the parade we remember was the one with the donkey.