Tuesday's postcard, and the red, white and blues of the Fourth of July

July 4, 2023

The Big Eddy, in west Spokane

The Stars and Gripes

It is a few minutes before 5 a.m. as I write. If he were still alive, it would be in this mist of first light that my father would be putting his flag out to mark Independence Day. It was more than a habit. It was a line of memory, a connection to his uncles who served in Europe during the Second World War, one of whom was killed, one of whom came home with what, in those days, was called shell shock.

Dad proudly carried their stories. He understood their sacrifice and its connection to the shape of the communities he enjoyed. As a veteran, a coach, a teacher, and a Bloomsday volunteer (among other things) he appreciated the connection between American patriotism and civility.

This is why, in his last years, he despised Donald Trump—not just Trump’s darkly comical self-absorption, but the bullying and the dark absence of integrity. He was baffled by Trump’s popularity—how someone as profoundly debasing as Trump could occupy the White House. He correctly sensed what Adam Serwer diagnosed about Trump and his ardent followers in a 2018 column, The Cruelty is the Point.