Wet and worth it

We just got back from the high school, where the township hosted its annual fireworks display. We arrived as the Philadelphia Funk Authority (I’ll refrain from saying anything about them) was finishing up and the rain was slowly building. They shut the band early and kicked off the fireworks before dark. A nice display, even in the rain, hanging with family amid the local faithful.

The thing about an evening like this is that it can remind us what patriotism is supposed to be about — a shared sense of ourselves. I am a fierce critic of the current administration and much of what our government has done in our names across its history, but I remain a staunch defender of the basic values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, viewing them as a plan for our future, knowing that the nation we live in has not always been the best that it can be and appreciating those special Americans who have been willing to fight to make it better– people like Mother Jones and Martin Luther King Jr., the Wobblies and the Yippies, the two Father Berrigans, the muckraking journalists of the Progressive Era, the Populist movement, the suffragists and so on.

Happy 4th, everyone.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet