Photo credit Stephanie McCabe, Unsplash.com

Before I even get started on this evening’s rant, let me just state that I went to my go-to image site to find a really nice picture of the American flag to commemorate Independence Day, here in the good old US of A.

The following are screen shots of the first page:

I’m not even sure what to think about this. As I scrolled through the images, page after page were rainbow flags and more rainbow flags. Bear in mind, the search term I used was, “American flag.” Now, I’m as pro LGBTQ as they come, but damn! When I try to find a picture of my country’s flag, on Independence Day, no less, and can’t from my go-to? Looks like it’s time to find another go-to.

So let’s get started, shall we?

United We Stand, my ass…

“One nation, under God, with liberty and justice to all.”

One nation? What a joke. I hopped on Facebook earlier today. I found several of these types of posts:

So we have to make our Country’s Independence Day racial? REALLY????

See this?

Thank you and God bless you, Grandpa!

This is my maternal grandfather’s marker. I borrowed this image from my uncle’s Facebook page. My grandpa fought for this country. My paternal grandfather served in the Navy. You know, for this country. I was an Air Force wife for the first 20+years of my adult life, so there were a few sacrifices on my part, although nothing near to what my grandfathers dealt with. I have supported Every. Single. President of these “United” (ha!) states since the age of 18.

I’m going to be honest. I’m angry. I’m so angry that I have tears, and anyone who knows me can attest that if there are tears? Look out.

Backing up? I’m not even a little bit racist. I understand “white privilege,” and have owned my own, but I don’t apologize for being born a white person. My great grandparents (3/4 of them, anyway; I can’t find crap on Ancestry about one of them) were born in Sicily and Poland and weren’t here for the Civil War. They came on over here, afterwards. I make no apologies for being white as a Sicilian-Polish American.

I am the minority on my team at work. Do I care? Nope. Not even a little bit. These amazing humans are my family away from home; I love them, and I think they love me. We don’t agree on everything (although we do agree that pizza is an amazing lunch), and that’s totally okay. Differences of opinion open doors to the views of other’s, and in turn? They change my own world view, and that is really a good thing.

But really? To make the 4th of July a racial issue? C’mon, y’all. If this hadn’t happened, where would we all be? I, for one, wouldn’t be here, as my grandparents wouldn’t have come over, my parents would never have met, and that would make me a total non-entity.

I’m sorry that there was slavery. I am. It was wrong. My family, personally, was not responsible for that, so please don’t fault me for celebrating the birth of the country that allowed someone as inconsequential as “me” to exist.

Had this country not been established, would the people making issue about celebrating the people that enslaved their ancestors be around to post the things that they do? Shouldn’t they be glad, instead, that they live in a country that allows them to do so?

I’m not bashing anyone, even though this reads that I am. Being pissed about a post does not equate to bashing the poster. Everyone has a right to their opinion, even if it pisses someone else off. I’m pretty sure this is going to piss someone off, and that’s okay, too.

This is my opinion. Opinions, as they say, are like assholes; everybody has one. They have the right to post and I have the right to disagree and even be angry about it. No, I don’t think less of anyone that does post their differences of opinion, because that’s what makes America great, but at the same time? As Americans, no matter how we got here, we are still in on all of this together. Wouldn’t it be easier to do it together, whatever it is that we need to do to become “one nation, under God” again?

Until Next Time…