I always thought I would be dead long before democracy’s demise.
I also believed I’d be gone before climate collapse.
I was wrong on both counts.
This Independence Day marks the fifth year that I have chosen not to celebrate but to rebel. I started this tradition in 2022 immediately following the fall of Roe. If you do not have control over your own body, what else matters? Bodily autonomy is a basic human right and a core tenet of freedom and independence. We fought for that right, and it was stripped from us by those who believe women should not control their own destinies. Since then, women have been forced to carry dead fetuses to term. They have bled out when denied miscarriage care, and at least one woman who was brain dead was kept alive by court order until her fetus could be delivered.
Texas was the first state to outlaw abortion, even before the Supreme Court reversed Roe. “More maternal deaths occur in Texas than in any other state, and a disproportionate share of U.S. maternal deaths take place in the state. In 2023, Texas’s maternal mortality rate was 155 percent higher than California’s (Gender Equity Policy Institute). In Texas, and in the 13 other states with total abortion bans and 28 states with gestational abortion bans, women’s lives simply don’t matter.
As the country celebrates the 250th year of American independence, it amazes me that most people don’t realize we are marking the death of our great American experiment. Our coveted Constitution has been brutally mauled by billionaires who race to become trillionaires while Americans lose health care and go hungry. If the current administration succeeds in overturning or nullifying the upcoming elections, or declares martial law, or somehow passes the SAVE Act to severely limit voter participation, they are coming for Social Security and Medicare next—House Leader Mike Johnson recently confirmed that. They want our money, and they will steal it and leave us to fend for ourselves and die, because that is what fascist authoritarians do.
The billions we have spent on a needless war with Iran, which has left that country in a stronger position than it held prior to the war, could have covered health care subsidies (5 million Americans have dropped health care coverage since ACA subsidies were abolished). It could have reinstated SNAP and Medicaid benefits that were cut in the Big, Beautiful Bill. It could have abolished crushing student debt. It could have ended hunger in the US. It could have subsidized childcare. But we have no money for those programs. In fact, we have to cut those programs to the bone to pay for this needless war, a war that has killed innocent civilians, including children, as well as American soldiers. Thirteen American service members have lost their lives, and Iran has lost over 3,000 people, including 168 school children who were killed by a US Tomahawk missile. Countless people have also died in other Gulf states, Lebanon, and Israel. Then there are the economic costs. As of mid-June, the war has cost $132 billion and counting. In addition, the Department of War says it will be requesting another $80 billion, which is likely much less than what is needed, as that amount doesn’t include the cost of repairing the damaged US bases across various Gulf states or replacing all of the missiles deployed during the conflict (Council on Foreign Relations).
And the worst part of this nightmare is that we chose it.
We have been careening toward this moment for 250 years. We had plenty of chances to choose a different path (including two opportunities to elect qualified women instead of our current president). There were times we seemed to lean into our better selves—times when we came together to lift each other up—as we did with the New Deal and the Civil Rights Act. But it has always been too little, too late. We have elected leaders who have abused the poor and trampled the planet that is home to all of us out of pure greed and a quest for absolute power. White, wealthy, Christian men have committed atrocities, including shooting a woman in the face for saying she wasn’t mad.
I am mad.
I am livid.
I have spent my entire life living in a country that considers me ‘less than.’ The misogyny and racism and classism and transphobia and homophobia have reached fever pitch. And what are we doing?
We are planning picnics and parades to celebrate 250 years of independence. We should be out in the street every single day protesting the government’s crimes against humanity. We should be fighting for each other and for the democracy we love instead of tuning out and accepting the inevitable. How can anyone take an honest look at this country—at how we have treated the immigrants who are the backbone of this nation—and accept that we are tearing families apart, holding people in deplorable detention camps, and deporting them to an unknown and unsafe future? How can we accept continued cuts to social programs we have funded so that billionaires and trillionaires can continue to line their pockets? How can we accept the construction of AI data centers that are destroying the environment, hurting communities, and draining water supplies—all while benefiting the billionaires? How can we accept opening protected land to increased drilling and mining when the warming climate is wreaking havoc on our planet?
How can we accept the erosion of our basic human and civil rights without batting an eye?
Yes, a handful of people are taking the risk of speaking the truth: Jack Smith, Heather Cox Richardson, Nicholas Kristoff, Heather Delaney Reese, the brave members of Alt National Park Service, and most recently active duty US Air Force Major Jason Watson, who was arrested when he protested on the House steps: “’For the past 18 months, we the people have allowed the highest levels of the executive branch of the federal government to violate our Constitution and their oaths to it with impunity. When the President of the United States orders military action against foreign countries absent an emergency scenario where American interests are under imminent dire threat, as was done with Venezuela, Cuba and Iran, that’s an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress’s authority and a violation of the War Powers Clause.’ Watson said that the violations caused the death of 13 service members and injuries of hundreds more, and for that, Trump and Vance should be impeached, convicted and removed from office. The major also pointed to other ‘violations,’ such as Elon Musk being allowed to shut down large portions of the federal government and granted access to government databases as well as Trump directing the Department of Homeland Security to deny due process before illegally detaining people and sending them to CECOT, a foreign prison in El Salvador notorious for human rights abuses. In Watson’s view, Trump ‘sponsors violence’ on the American people engaged in their right to peacefully assemble and protest as protected by the First Amendment as a reason for the pair’s removal. Watson said there are ‘innumerable more impeachable offenses’ that he could list, including denying congressional oversight of immigrant detention centers, suing media, law firms and educational institutions, weaponizing the Department of Justice and attempting to reverse birthright citizenship” (Military Times). For having the courage to take such a stand, he has jeopardized his career, his pension, and his freedom. He is a true American hero.
And yes, we have held No Kings rallies that have drawn millions of Americans. But a few rallies aren’t enough. We need to realize that no one is coming to save us, and if we don’t save ourselves, this “Independence” Day will mark the end of our 250-year experiment. We chose this, but we can also choose to end it—now. We cannot rely on Congress. We cannot rely on the Supreme Court. They are complicit. We can only rely on ourselves—we the people. We get to decide if we will reclaim our democracy or sit back and accept that this year’s parades and fireworks mark year one of a fascist United States of America.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
