I am writing this from a suburb of Chicago, on  4^th of July 2025 – USA’s 249th birthday.

In the morning, I went to a grocery store to get flowers to gift a friend – it’s her birthday, too.

I have no plans specific to Independence Day. However, recently a friend bought me a headband with an Uncle Sam hat – a blue rim, the USA stars and stripes as the pattern, red-white-blue feathers. The hat stands about ten centimeters small. Goofy headbands are a thing with me – so, I put the headband on before heading out today.

At the store, some of cashiers were wearing some form of red, white and blue. However, I didn’t vibe it is national holiday, with people doing last minute shopping for picnics and BBQs and a certain lightness for the long weekend and an evening of jolly company and fireworks. At the cash register, there wasn’t the banter of “What are you up to this July 4th weekend?”

I left the store, after a saying a quiet  “Happy 4^th of July…” to the cashier – I don’t know if she heard me – if she did, she didn’t say anything. I wore the headband because someone had made the effort to gift it to me – I had no expectations. However, while I was driving home, I realized I was a bit shocked to not get a single acknowledgement of the holiday – prompted by the headband.  

This all seems fitting to illustrate a story of tyranny and abuse of power. Some people don’t feel like celebrating the USA right now – aren’t feeling free and joyful. People are worried about the cost of living and worried about the state of our democracy. People are fearful, if not for themselves, for members of their communities who are particularly vulnerable in this current regime.

People are being taken from their backyards by ICE officials, Government officials belonging to the Democratic Party are getting arrested. Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman on 14 June, the morning of the NO KINGS protests, was politically assassinated. Anyone who listens the news, will be at least loosely familiar with the range of fear-inducing happenings.

I don’t know the numbers, the percentage of people who feel more like grieving and protesting today. Nor do I know the numbers, the percentage of people who are delighted by the passing into law of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and are earnestly celebrating today – who are in a story illustrated by victories and long-awaited changes.

I don’t know what the rift looks like in numbers. I don’t even know why I’m wondering about the numbers.

Or maybe I do. I’m thinking about the numbers in order to look beyond them. When I do, I see how underneath the rift, underneath the numbers detailing who is on what side and how many are seemingly indifferent, we all have something in common: whether we are aware of it or not, we are all being intensely shaped right now by fear and vulnerability. While some segments of people are becoming increasingly afraid, others are feeling increasingly less afraid, perhaps even safer/more secure.

Across what we think political spectrum, some are attuning to new found courage and conviction. Some are feeling paralyzed – dazed and confused. Some are feeling defiant. Some are feeling defeated.

Today is the birthday of the United States of America and in a way we are just as we were on the day this country was born. We are a collection of humans who in the name of freedom and independence are entangled in a messy collective dynamic of which the underpinnings are fear and vulnerability in a dance with power and domination.

This is the not-at-all new story I’m seeing illustrated in so many ways. At the heart of it is not a story of the battle between the political right and political left or even the battle between right and wrong. Rather, it’s the story of how we – the people – choose to relate to and respond to fear and vulnerability. What have we tended to do in the past? What have the true results been? What’s beneath the gloss? How can we be and do differently in the future to get different, better-in-the-depths outcomes?

I wore the headband partly to honor the friend who gifted it to me and in case it’s cuteness might make people smile – and maybe that seems shallow in the seriousness of what’s happening. Thing is, I want to see this country mature into a collection of humans living together in ways which manifest (display the qualities) of Love, autonomy, mutuality, reciprocity and more. I like to think we can do this – and the more we smile while doing the hard graft, the better.