What’s to celebrate?

Like countless Americans, I’ve been ignoring the semiquincentennial. In our current political climate, what is there to celebrate?

Even expecting that Democrats will take at least the House of Representatives in November, I’ve not been optimistic about our country’s future in my lifetime. The Senate may still be Republican, President Trump will still have veto power, and the Supreme Court will still have a majority of conservative lifetime judges. The damage that Trump has already done to our institutions and our relationships around the world won’t be repaired overnight. When he is gone in 2½ years, the third of the country who still support him likely won’t go back into the woodwork.

Needing a pick-me-up, I started a list of reasons to celebrate this Independence Day:

• The committed people who continue to fight. Those who are inclined to sit on the sidelines — like me — owe a debt to the politicians, religious and labor leaders, artists, and activists of every stripe who stick their necks out to oppose the administration’s cruel, destructive, corrupt, and racist actions.

• Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker for standing against Trump and fascism.

• Like-minded folks. The massive turnouts for the no-kings marches showed that the opposition is not a small minority.

• Living in a blue state, which gives some protection against Trump’s policies. Illinois opposes the mass deportation of immigrants, supports environmental goals, and ensures reproductive healthcare, among its differences with the national administration. 

• Living in a city where diversity is considered a strength.

• Our history. Thirteen disparate colonies broke from England. The Civil War divided North and South, but the country came back together. We survived the Depression, Vietnam, and the pandemic.  

• Barack and Michelle Obama’s inspiration. At the Obama Presidential Center opening, they urged us not to give in to despair. The former president said, “For us to give up, for us to give in now, after all this country has been through, to cynicism and division would be a betrayal of our founding ideals, a betrayal of our faith.” Obama is hope personified, but he’s not a pollyanna.

Please add to the list. The more reasons to hope, the better.