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A travesty, a waste and a shame. Now that we've made it past the prez's people's pathetic pass at honoring the nation's birthday - How small they are, as our mayor put it, how weak, how unoriginal - one starts to feel both anger at what was stolen from us and sadness at the thought of what might have been. I gather the dud of a national "state fair" displaced what would have been an astonishing gathering of folk musicians from across the country, for instance.
Long before the dystopian midnight carnival on the National Mall (is this how you turn the Washington Monument into an unholy pillar to Baal?), I was reminded of the grandeur and dignity possible as tall ships from around the world passed up and down the Hudson... You could see them out our window (above) or at river level (below)!
And all day I was buoyed by the words of our magical mayor the night before: What a privilege each of us has, to live in a nation that every one of its inhabitants can shape. What a responsibility each of us possesses, to prove ourselves worthy of all those who came before. What power each of us holds, to bring America ever-closer to the greatness so many have seen when they looked upon these shores — the greatness that, for 250 years, has been America.
