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A SAD ANNIVERSARY [1]

['Chitown Kev', 'A Pagan In Arizona', 'Sabrina Haake']

Date: 2026-07-05  

REFLECTIONS ON 250 YEARS

By Kenneth J. Uva

I have been a student of American history since I was five or six years old. My first grade classroom had a small library in the back. I borrowed a book about American history. It was by no means an advanced text but it was not written in the style of school readers or Golden Books. I took the book home and read it cover to cover in one night. All 90 pages. To this day, I remember the painting of the death of British General Wolfe at the battle of Quebec. My personal library followed with books about American history, and George Washington. I knew the dates of all the wars, had a collection of figures of all the presidents, and had a clear understanding of dates so, for example, I knew the great migration to Oregon was before the Civil War.

Two movies were of particular interest, both Disney products. The earliest was “Davy Crockett. King of the Wild Frontier.” The series it was based on and the movie itself set off a craze for any product that Disney licensed with reference to the movie, coonskin caps, rifles, and clothing, and lunch boxes. As a boy of 5 and 6 I was obsessed with Davy but also with the history. The first segment was about the Creek War during the War of 1812. I learned from my father that the rifles of the day had to be loaded by a specific process after each shot. Davy was a volunteer in Andrew Jackson’s army so, early on, I saw how being a general could lead to the presidency. The last segment found Crockett at the Alamo. Yet another history lesson as I learned about conflicts with Mexico and about Texas independence. That battle has resonated so much in our history that it is still debated in various forums, including Facebook.

“Johnny Tremain” was the Disney Company’s version of a novel about a young boy in Boston during the period leading to the Revolutionary War and ending after the battles of Lexington and Concord. I learned of the Boston Tea Party, the Sons of Liberty, the lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church and Paul Revere’s ride and the first battles of the war the next day.

As the years passed, I learned that these battles were far more brutal than Disney depicted in films intended for a young audience. I also learned that American history was not as clean and hero strewn as depicted. Later study and a lifetime of reading uncovered the brutality of slavery, the horrible treatment of Native Americans, racial and religious discrimination, exploited workers and terrible working conditions, legally sanctioned racial segregation and life in urban slums.

This essay is not a catalogue of all that was wrong with the United States. There are libraries full of such information. What hit me on the 250th birthday of the United States is that over the decades many of these vexing issues were addressed, and sometimes solved. Wage and hour laws improved working conditions. Women were given the right to vote. School segregation was declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court. Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 addressed public accommodations and voting rights, respectively. Other SCOTUS decisions affirmed the right to abortion, interracial marriage, prohibited certain religious observances in public schools and protected same-sex marriage. In short, there have been decades long struggles to affirm the rights of racial, sexual, and religious minorities.

This is no way implies that there was a golden age when there was a consensus in identifying and fixing problems, but in each case, the system held. President Dwight Eisenhower was not a supporter of civil rights but he ordered troops to Little Rock to enforce the ban against school segregation. During the 1976 Bicentennial year, we had a president who was not elected and there were oil embargos. The Vietnam War ended in defeat, and Nixon had recently resigned over Watergate crimes. Nixon was forced to resign because Congress, the courts, and finally Republican senators did their jobs. The final end to Vietnam was Congress refusing to further fund military action. In essence, the Constitution, laws, and courts prevailed. Despite controversies and divided opinions, we maintained faith in our government.

Why is this a sad anniversary?

There are good and bad aspects of American history. Many of the bad aspects have been addressed through constitutional amendments, legislation, court decisions and increasing public awareness. This has all led to greater rights and greater equality. UNTIL NOW.

One way to measure a nation’s greatness is by the good it does. The United States had a massive food and health program for areas of the world that needed it. Trump has cut this aid considerably. He has cut Affordable Care Act subsidies causing people to be unable to keep their health insurance. He has cut funding for children’s cancer research, et al. Instead, we have a president who is enriching himself, his family, and his cronies while in office. He is a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter. He still denies the 2020 election and pardoned those convicted in attempting to overthrow the results of that election. His administration abolished the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. He treats the DOJ as if it is his personal law firm and has it investigating those who opposed him, the actions of a tyrant. His Department of Defense refused to acknowledge the contributions of woman and minorities to the defense of the country and has fired a disproportionate number of high ranking African American and women officers. This administration has demonized the small minority of trans people and made the use of toilets a major issue. And on this anniversary of a nation that has grown and prospered from immigration, he has made diversity a fighting word, and has imposed a vicious regimen, including concentration camps, on people who came here for freedom and opportunity.

In his July 4, 2026 speech on the Washington Mall, Trump made half-hearted references to the Declaration of Independence and to the Constitution, thus missing an opportunity to appeal for unity and kindness, while raising the specter of communism as a direct threat to our country. Perhaps he was auditioning buzzwords for the midterms, as if discredited actions of the 1950s will obscure the mess in Iran, his enriching himself by his office, or the use of government agencies to settle scores.

Readers of my posts do not have to be convinced that the Trump administration is reversing the gains of a century while adhering to the lie that the United States is a Christian nation.

Is it any wonder that this 250th anniversary is not being felt with pride? The worst president in our history is defacing Washington DC with monuments to himself as if he is king. The corruption of Trump and company, violation of laws and of the Constitution, encouraging hatred of certain groups, and a foreign policy not in keeping with the nation’s place in the world, has taken away any pride and joy that we should feel on this auspicious anniversary.

I can weep when I think about the soldiers at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, and Normandy, my 20-year old father fending off kamikaze attacks on the ships at Okinawa, or the workers beaten for forming a union, or women jailed for fighting for the vote, or the marchers beaten in Selma for fighting for their voting rights, or the gay community who had enough police harassment at Stonewall, of all the people who put themselves on the line for their rights, or just those who worked in every occupation day in and day out, raised families, and paid taxes in order to make this a great nation.

Their memories deserve better and so do the rest of us.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/5/800065620/community/a-sad-anniversary/

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