My greatest July 4th celebration was in 1976 at Fort Chafee Arkansas. We were an Army reserve unit sent there to support the refugee effort of the Vietnamese people who were there because of our nation's humanitarian program. Those refugees would have been slaughtered had they stayed in country after we pulled out. It was our bicentennial year. I was honored to be a part of this, even though it was a small part. I was overwhelmed with gratitude.
Now, four plus decades later, we have refugees and children in prison camps for trying to escape a similar situation in central American. ( We have had a hand in that too.) We have a commander in cheat who demands a parade just like his dictator mentors. We are close to the end of the democracy that has held us all together, through good times and bad. All the while our elected officials offer crickets when it comes to these actions and the leader of the Senate has decided to obstruct every safeguard offered for a vote.
Orwell's 1984 is more realistic every passing day. God help us all.