Disclosure: This post rambles from birthday memories to historical tidbits, then current political division.
When a kid, June 14th meant cake, ice cream, and an enthusiastic, loud rendition in my family’s discordant, cacophonous voice of Happy Birthday. No one in my family could carry a tune, obviously an inherited deficiency. But we all loved our cake and ice cream. Dad’s favorite was seven-layer, a creation of seven thin layers of yellow cake (we counted and seven was always the magic number), each layer separated by chocolate buttercream filling, all held together by chocolate icing. A dessert loaded with calories that went straight to my waist. And hips. And stomach. But oh so delicious.
At some point I discovered June 14th was also Flag Day, requiring a quick mention as we munched cake. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed a Resolution designating a national flag. The Flag Resolution stated, “That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.
Years rolled by and Dad passed in 2008. He would have been 102 this year.
In 2025, June 14th is a lot more complicated than when I was growing up. The current President shares the same birth day as my Dad. The President will be 79 this year. June 14th also happens to be the date of the establishment of the Army on June 14, 1775. The Army is celebrating its 250th year.
The President decided to give himself a super-sized birthday gift – a military parade. Perhaps not exactly an un-American activity, but not a common event. The last military parade occurred on June 8, 1991, to mark the end of the Gulf War. Previously the end of World War II offered a chance to celebrate, and the country rejoiced with a military parade. I prefer spectacles like Thanksgiving Day parades with high school bands, balloon cartoon characters, folks singing popular songs, and celebrities waving from decorated floats.
We live in a nation divided, revealed by the fact that thousands of people around the country, rather than admire a military parade, choose to protest the Administration’s policies with a ‘No Kings’ Day of Peaceful Protests. It is remarkable to watch thousands of folks assemble in cities and towns across the country express their frustration, annoyance, sadness, anger, fear, at the authoritarian, backward direction the country is relentlessly shifting towards.
My Dad, a World War II veteran, supporter of women and their rights to equality, open-minded, with a cheerful persona, raised by a single Mom during the Depression, would be aghast at the chaos our country is in today.
But Dad was an optimist, and so am I. The energies of the Administration’s opposition will eventually triumph. The question is how badly the country will suffer until that happens, how long the current craziness will last, and how long and at what cost (financially, psychologically, mentally, physically) before we emerge from the darkness and begin a ‘new normal’.
We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle
that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future. – John F. Kennedy
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