Happy Independence Day 2022, the 246th birthday of the United States of America. Independence Day is my favorite holiday, a time where people come together to celebrate what make our nation great.
This year, that celebration is more difficult for me. While I still believe in the fundamentals that make our nation great, the United States is in the midst of an extremely difficult time, where rather than coming together our nation seems to be pulling itself apart. There are many reasons for this and I’m not going to dwell upon them in this post, but I think most reasonable people would agree that this is a time of great division in our nation.
Periods of great division are not new to the United States, we’ve gone through them before, survived, and come out better in the end, but right now, living through this period, I am heartbroken about our country and the trajectory it seems to be taking.
Normally on Independence Day, I put up a lot of flags, I go to the 4th of July parade in the town I grew up in, I hang out with family, and think upon what makes our nation great and what work still needs to be done. But as this holiday approached this year, I found myself feeling like the standard celebration wouldn’t be appropriate this year. I didn’t want to focus on the greatness of the past nor the turmoil of the present. I found myself wanting to do something different.
So, thanks to some expiring Southwest Airlines credits from an early pandemic trip which was cancelled, I’m going to focus on the future. I’m flying to Seattle to attend the Seattle Center Naturalization Celebration. For the majority of my lifetime, this ceremony, which is one of the largest in the nation, has been held on Independence Day to swear in new citizens of our nation.
These people have gone through extensive vetting by many different parts of the United States Government, they’ve worked through the legal process and passed the test, and, on Independence Day, they take the oath and become citizens. As millions os people before them, they see the promise of the United States and are willing to swear their allegiance to it and renounce any allegiance to their current country.
The promise of this nation still exists. The promise of this nation is worth fighting for. The promise of this nation is what I love about the United States.
Tomorrow, as the new citizens take the oath, I will remember the citizenship in this country that I was given by the mere fact that I was born here, and admire and celebrate those who are joining our ranks today, after years of effort.
Today, the flag of the United States flies in celebration of the 246th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Also flying is the Bennington Flag, a revolutionary war flag, which I love the design of. It has four features which distinguish it from other similar flags:
- The top and bottom stripes are white, while nearly all other American flags have red stripes in these locations.
- The 76 in the canton, evoking the year the United States declared independence from Great Britain.
- The blue canton is taller than most other flags of this style, spanning nine stripes instead of the usual seven.
- The stars are seven pointed, rather than the usual five.
Cruesbreck Flags 