#4th of july
4th of July is tomorrow and I cannot wait for this shitshow of a holiday to be over. How can you celebrate a country that is keeping children in cages right now. Today. As I type this. This is far from the only problem with this country but I can’t understand how you can even begin to forgive, let alone celebrate, a country for that alone. I have no way to connect this to Judaism, I’m just angry.
I’m angry too, and I’ve been donating to the group Jews Against ICE who have been leading protests against detention centers and forcing closures, as I am not in a position to protest myself.
I’m a military spouse. Both my husband are angry, sick, and disappointed… and yet every morning on base we have to stop and face the flag when the anthem plays at 8 AM. It’s a ritual that draws tears from me, because what America is right now is not what I was promised as a child. I was raised in a community that told me every voice mattered, every mouth deserved a meal, every head deserved a roof, and every child deserved the security of a family… and America was supposed to be the symbol of that.
But the family with food and a roof they always showed me was white. And cis. And het. And Christian. With a man in a suit and a woman in a lace dress. Maybe with an adopted member of a different color, MAYBE.
I don’t know why I questioned that image while others have rallied to defend it. All I know is I was promised, as a child, that America held these ideals for everyone. Lipservice, but I took it as true. True that empathy, understanding, and compassion was our culture.
This evening, I will travel down to a beach in Guam that’s on military land. This island is a US Territory, where the people born here are American citizens but don’t have the right to vote. In about five hours, I will be floating off the coast of an island that has given the military ¼th of its land and 1/8th of its population, watching fireworks streak into the sky, and know there are people on the mainland suffering horrific cruelty, and people fighting against that cruelty.
I think of the 4th of July as my sort of… patriotic New Years– where I take stock of these things and try to figure out what I can do to take the America we have, and make more like the one I was promised as a kid. The one where everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Where empathy, compassion, kindness, and generosity is our culture. Where we see bodies in a ditch, and find next of kin and console the family. Where people flee violence, and we greet them with open arms and aid. Where we are diverse, in color, religion, ability, gender, and sexuality, and celebrate it.
This is not the America I live in. It has never existed in our history. But it was the America I was told about as a child; and when I watch the fireworks in a couple hours, it is the America I will think of.
I’ll think about how to make it real.
This is good and powerful.
I’d like to add, also, the world where Nazis, ubiquitously, get together with their friends on their day off work, and leftists don’t, is the world where Nazis gain strength and community and leftists lose strength and community.
Sitting home being depressed isn’t a political act (though it may be a necessary act for some of us).
But if you can, use this holiday to contemplate - to start a conversation - to raise funds for ACLU and RAICES among your family and friends, if you can.
I ❤️ patRIOTism
Firecracker Bundt Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
- Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box
- Red food coloring
- Blue food coloring
- 1 (12 oz) can Betty Crocker® Whipped Fluffy White Frosting
Directions:
Heat oven to 325°F. Generously grease a 12-cup tube cake pan. Make cake batter as directed on box. Pour 1 cup of batter into a bowl and add the red food coloring, mix well. Pour another cup of the batter into a bowl and add the blue food coloring, mix well.
Pour the red cake mix into the bottom of the greased pan. Carefully pour the white batter over the red batter in pan. Then carefully pour the blue batter over the white batter.
The blue batter does not need to cover the white batter completely. It looks better if it just forms a ring in the center of the white batter.
Bake as directed on box or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Turn pan upside down onto cooling rack that is placed over a cookie sheet. Cool cake completely, about 30 minutes.
Once cake is cool, equally divide the frosting into 3 bowls. Microwave the white frosting for a few seconds on high until it is smooth enough to drizzle over the cake. With a spoon, drizzle the white frosting back and forth around the whole ring in a striping pattern until you use it all.
Then microwave one of the other bowls. Before drizzling, mix in a few drops of blue food coloring. Then drizzle over the cake, scattering back and forth. Repeat with the red food coloring, making sure you can see the red, white and blue colors. Set cake aside to dry.
Cooking Tips:
When you add the batter, do not mix with a spoon. Just pour it in so the colors don’t mix but rather, just rest on top of each other in the pan.
Store loosely covered and unrefrigerated.
Cake can be made a day or two in advance.
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Happy 4th of July to all my USA friends! Hope your day is full of red, white and blue latex as you celebrate the freedom to be weird and kinky
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I see a lot of my professional dog training buddies bragging about how fine their dogs are on July 4th. I’m glad for you, and TBH my dog is too - but that doesn’t mean it’s because you or I are good trainers.Sure, training, thoughtful early exposure and counter conditioning helps. BUT what helps even more is a dog with a solid temperament (you can’t train that), and a hell of a lot of LUCK.
This is the first 4th of July without Charlotte - that dog taught me more personally and professionally than ANY temperamentally solid dog ever has. For weeks around July 4th she was highly medicated long lasting and fast acting crisis meds and she STILL was beyond being able to be comforted and was a serious danger to herself. No amount of training was ever going to “fix” that. I am so relieved there are no fireworks in heaven and she is not in agony today (at 8am i’ve already heard fireworks).
TLDR - dog people your dog’s successes and challenges don’t define you. Stop shaming people whose dogs are struggling. If you’ve never had a dog that struggles that tells me either you are lying, have culled your pack, or don’t have as much experience as you say you do. Don’t be elitist. Help others to keep their dogs safe while the country blows things up. Keep dogs inside and supervised and encourage/support others to do the same including seeking out medication if their panic is severe.
July Poster ✨
It’s that time of year again! There are a lot of dangers for pets around holidays, and July 4th in the U.S. is one of the worst.
More pets go missing during the 4th of July than any other day of the year.
Make sure your pets are microchipped and wearing tags with up-to-date information. If your cat is indoor-only, it’s a good idea to get them a bright orange collar like this oneso that people…
THE OVAL OFFICE BY JON RAFMAN IN THE STYLE OF JASPER JOHNS.
