(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



HOW TO CELEBRATE AMERICA 250 [1]

[]

Date: 2026-06-30  

Dress up as algae. Have a backyard state fair, like the backyard carnivals we had as kids. Get some chalk. Write 86 47 on walls, sidewalks, other public areas. (Chalk will wash off, so it isn’t really vandalism.) Put birdseed on Teslas. (Birds like parked cars anyway.) Read the Bill of Rights. There are lots of amendments besides the Second. Learn about your immigrant forbearers, who probably weren’t welcome in this country either. Still have that chalk? Write No Kings in America in public areas, after all that’s what our founders fought for. Get together with your neighbors. Get to know your neighbors. Organize a concert with local artists, instead of performers you haven’t heard of since high school. Collect for your local food bank. Whatever you can get for them, they probably need it.

I celebrated the bicentennial sweating in a replica of an eighteenth century dress. My reenactor friends will be horrified to learn that it had a zipper! They will be even more disgusted to learn that I didn’t wear stays. I don’t wear stays. I like modern underwear thank you. The American Wind Symphony played Fanfare for the Common Man. Then Pete Seeger sang.

Things were different back then. Tricky Dicky Nixon had been forced to resign. We had the idea that democracy worked. There was no internet. If people wanted to spread crazy rumors, they had to resort to print media or water cooler gossip.

Our heroes were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two city reporters who had brought down a president.

A man who said women shouldn’t vote, might find his way onto Phil Donahue, to he shouted down by a mob of housewives. He wouldn’t be in the president’s cabinet.

I miss that age of innocence.

But, if we make enough noise. If we make enough trouble, we just might get our country back.

So, get your chalk, get your birdseed and celebrate the day our ancestors said, no kings by saying no kings.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/30/800063446/community/how-to-celebrate-america-250/

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/