It was July 4, 1957. My dad, the Sergeant of the Police from Station Number 11, had acquired 10 dozen American flags, handed them out to the neighbors living in our surrounding block, so each of them could plant one each in their yard. This had become a ritual for the neighbors, and a plan my father conceived at the time to keep America alive on our street and to keep kids and families safe, and able to enjoy Independence Day together. My father, as he was known at the time Sargent Benny also had an ace up his sleeve, as one of his best friends was a member of the Pittsburgh Fire Department, and at the time had the responsibly of handing out Sparklers and to create mini-neighborhood Fire Works Displays. The neighbors would gather early providing potluck meals and our street has an official block party to celebrate the 4th. Not all the history of our nation demonstrating independence had such red, white and blue moment, and not all memories of freedom from the past are cool enough to recall even remember, but at the time before I could realize that Presidents, Congressmen, and Politicians were only HUMAN and no superheroes, nor selfish con artists hoping to buy islands for a band of shells, or keep the pursuit of happiness for a select few, I loved America and I loved how we so proudly we hailed the twilights last gleaming, and the star and the stripes.
It was July 4, 1957, and as my now 68-year-old brain reminisces, there were at least 100 people in the front of our house, waiting for the Fire Marshall to set off a small fireworks display, and I was stuck in the house with a case of MUMPS, on the right side of my throat and face. Fucking MUMPS on the 4th! No way I would be permitted to get anywhere close to anyone, so I had to sit by the living room window, the kind window with the removable screen which could, in the winter be replaced with the double-paned glass to keep out the cold. And all could do was watch ALL of the amazing fun happening right in front of my eyes, yet NOT do anything but sit there. And to make certain I behaved my Grandma Braff was given the task of sitting as the policewoman on a not so comfy tattered green and white striped lawn chair. But a bonus, if I got bored, just watching, I had an entire home-baked chocolate cake, with coconut white icing in the kitchen, that if I could swallow any if it without my throat hurting, could eat as much as I wished. And oh yeah, playing on the TV in beautiful black and white was the movie ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy” The celebration continued, I a passive observer, but America had another chance to try to grow into its skin and become a place for the tired and the poor, the healthy and the wealthy, and a country that mattered.
It is July 4, 2018. And I am sitting at home missing a great party held in a house on the Hollywood Hills, a BBQ party to watch the fireworks display with almost a 360-degree panoramic view. One of my 68-year-old discs decided to play the part of the MUMPS from back in 1957. Bah-humbug! But this time, my sadness is not about what I am missing, but what IS missing from America. Separated families wanting to find freedom from oppression, just become oppressed again. People of color being treated as if the Civil Rights Act was a just a fluke, and a Republican Party so filled with self-interests, that the INTERESTS of this nation are petty and pale, It is Independence Day, but on July 4, 2018, who exactly is feeling the freedom, equality, fairness, and justice, independence was supposed to provide. Happy Birthday, America, it seems this year all you got was booby prize!
