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Opinion

Oh No, It’s the 4th of July: An Open Thread

As we do every week (but a day early this time), we're turning Racket over to you, the readers.

Photo by DESIGNECOLOGIST on Unsplash

Racket is taking tomorrow off, and I hope the rest of you are as well (or, if not, you're at least getting paid double-time).

I'm not personally a fireworks guy—though in theory I like big, bright explosions in the sky, in reality I find 'em kind of dull. But I've got at least one cookout to attend, and I hope to hit a gig or two. And I plan to lay around the house a bunch as well.

But this is gonna be a tough Independence Day to stomach. As someone raised on Springsteen records and Leaves of Grass, I can never quite give up on the unruly potential for American democracy. But U.S. history can feel like a very sick joke in the 21st century, with the Trump regime a rancid punchline.

And so, apatriotic (as opposed to anti-) fella that I am, all I can do this weekend, while my government reverses a century of progress, is be my inescapably American self—cranky and idealist, disrespectful of power and prestige, and convinced that humans have the obligation to work together to govern themselves.

Share your thoughts on the subject if you got 'em. Or you can just tell us how you plan to relax over the next three days.

And as always, feel free to ignore this prompt and talk about whatever you want.

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