1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

Trump’s Freedom 250 celebration of Trump didn’t seem to have good karma. Sweltering heat and thunderstorms caused delays and cancellations. Shoddy preparations. Haphazard. Expensive. Nothing seemed to be planned for the public’s comfort. It was like someone who’d never been to any kind of state fair was given the assignment to create one. On the cheap. Like a really bad Hollywood stage set. They couldn’t even get the fireworks right, at a cost to taxpayers of as much as $6-7M. Only the first minute of them actually happened on July 4. And the finale wasn’t visible because it was obscured by smoke. Something fireworks experts typically plan for and work around. The dysfunction was on brand. Predictable. But Americans celebrated the Semiquincentennial despite Donald Trump, not with him. Our 250 fervor was spread across the 50 states. The patriotism was real. Not manufactured. Not cynically used to create a jingoistic, chest-thumping, wrapped-in-the-flag version. The love for country was real. The support for our Republic was real. And we the people showed up to prove it. Everywhere. So while we’re subjected daily to all manner of behavior still unacceptable to the majority of us, we should be proud to know when confronted with assaults on the America we know and love, we can still show the world that our dream is not dead. And we also reminded the politicians who work for us in DC who the real boss is. Has been, and always will be.