A Short Rant on Independence Day

I'm not the one who made it political. I was just checking email in bed.

Pivotal moments aren’t always dramatic; they may take such banal forms that we almost miss them. This morning, I believe one arrived in the form of an email from the Social Security Administration. While I slept, a heretofore non-partisan government agency paraded into my inbox to “applaud” (“applauds” was in the subject line) the passage of “the One Big, Beautiful Bill.” It falsely claimed that this contentious piece of legislation had abolished federal income taxes on social security benefits instead of offering a temporary tax deduction and hastening social security’s insolvency.

I’d hoped not to think about that bill today, terrified as I am about ICE getting a budget larger than the Marines’ to arrest millions of immigrants and imprison them in—just for starters; with $100 billion, hell’s the limit—tents in an alligator-infested swamp. But a government agency spammed me to gloat. It felt like a tipping point.

In the name of all that’s decent, give me back my dead-eyed bureaucracy!

Otherwise, it was a nice Independence Day. I had a lovely coffee with friends and then, because the weather was fine and we’d been talking about waterfalls and swimming holes, waded in the Roanoke River in my Keens and James Madison tee.

Wading the Roanoke River with James Madison

Tonight, I reread the Declaration of Independence. Great writing is timeless; Jefferson was such a remarkable wordsmith that his laundry list of the King’s offenses almost sounds as if it could have been written in 2025.

On a more positive note, this documentary about two Canadian guys hitchhiking across America made my day yesterday. Their mission was to rely completely on the kindness of strangers for food, lodging, and rides and to make it to the West Coast in 30 days. People from all walks of life, including recent immigrants, helped them. This is the America I know and love. We’re still here.

Happy Independence Day!