Even on Independence Day, it's hard to feel "patriotic" in 2019 Trump America

Staging featuring tanks for the President Trump "Salute to America" speech at the Lincoln Memorial for July 4th, 2019. Photo: Erik S. Lesser/European Press Agency.

The city is agog to some extent because of how President Trump has changed the traditional Fourth of July celebration in DC -- a parade and fireworks in the evening -- to include a speech at the Lincoln Memorial, with a VIP section, and the display of tanks and other military vehicles.

That's bad, sure.

But far worse is the demonization of just about anyone other than his hardcore base of supporters and the foreign dictators he likes to kow-tow to as "the other."

The treatment by the US of people crossing the border with Mexico seeking asylum is unconscionable ("Crammed into cells and forced to drink from the toilet – this is how the US treats migrants," Guardian).

It makes me feel sick. So challenging to my beliefs about what the United States stands for. Oppposite of the language on the plaque at the foot of the Statue of Liberty.

Asylum seekers aren't breaking a law and shouldn't be imprisoned.

It's a sad say when Uganda does a better job dealing with refugees than the United States ("We care for refugee children in Uganda. It's really not that hard to do it," Washington Post).

The photo of the father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande River, trying to cross in the U.S. is tragic.

People wouldn't be driven to such lengths if the US would just have a reasonable process for dealing with people seeking to leave Central and South America--areas and countries riven in part because of a negative history of US actions in those countries, along with the impacts of climate changes, the impact of US demand for drugs on governance and stability in those countries, etc.

The bodies of Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his nearly 2-year-old daughter, Valeria, lie on the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, Monday after they drowned trying to cross the river to Brownsville, Texas. Martinez' wife, Tania, told Mexican authorities she watched her husband and child disappear in the strong current. | AP

Rather than focus on building a big wall, how about investing in those countries, both in social and political institutions as well as the economy, so that people are motivated to stay rather than to leave for either political or economic reasons.

The Guardian has an article, "Tree planting has 'mind-blowing' potential to tackle climate crisis," about how tree planting can be a significant and successful response to climate change.

One initiative could be a massive tree planting and broader environment program in Central and South America.

Etc.

From the standpoint of public diplomacy and "Brand America" Trump may complain about the trade deficit, but the "brand withdrawals" and destruction of brand value by the Trump Administration is immense and it will take a long time to be able to recover.

And the US will not be able to fully revive its reputation, as other countries, especially China, step into the breach as the US increasingly becomes hermetic and transactional in its approach to the world.

-- "Rebranding America," Boston Globe, 2005

From today's parade in Takoma Park, Maryland. (Sorry that my phone camera isn't that great--it takes in too much light.)

This grouping followed Marc Elrich, the County Executive, who walked in the Parade--he wasn't driven--and he wasn't surrounded with a security detail.