Other Truly American Things to Do on 4th of July

Credit: IMBA

America is the most…America it’s ever been. For a lot of its citizens, they just don’t feel represented or protected, thus making them feel like it’s harder and harder to celebrate the USA on Independence Day when they aren’t celebrated or truly free. Try these truly representative and actually American — and not so ‘Murican — ways to do the 4th of July thing a little different.

Have a multi-cultural potluck

After all, we are a “melting pot.” Mochi in the summer sun smacks, fattoush before the fireworks is fantastic, and jollof is the vice that just hits right on any holiday.

Credit: Portland Community College

Switch up the sounds of summer by listening to music with a message

Kendrick Lamar, Rage Against the Machine, Gil Scott-Heron, and Beyoncé all got something to say/sing!

Throw a ‘Postcard to Politicians’ party

Speak your mind, practice your John Hancock (aside from owning a few slaves, which is a few too many), and support the USPS by writing your representatives.

Organizing a post-holiday protest

Because “the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” is some real First Amendment fun.

Fly that flag that represents you and yours

A rainbow American flag, an inverted American Flag, the Stankonia black and white flag, or any flag (as almost all are protected).

Credit: Author’s Personal Photos (iPhone 11)

Donate your time and services to those in need

Summer is even more rough for the unhoused, impoverished, and sick. While many volunteers and organizations do take a holiday, the harsh reality of the world does not.

Credit: calmatters.org

Sit with a veteran who has PTSD or cuddle a scared dog

Many from both groups HATE fireworks. Go even a step further and help introduce a scared dog to a veteran. Alternatively, be on pup patrol — more dogs run away from home during the Independence Day weekend than any other holiday stretch.

Create a community cleanup

The Fourth of July weekend produces more outdoor trash and environmental impact than almost any other holiday.

Credit: Author’s Personal Photos

Make a donation to a progressive organization

Be a one-upper, as the USA tends to try and be, and make the donation in the name of your least favorite bigot.

Credit: START

Celebrate with comedy!

All the way back to the stylings of Bob Hope’s USO days, dusting off the censored George Carlin records, or misinterpreting the constitution on purpose to an originalist — “ah yes the right to bear arms”!

Break out the projector and speakers to head outside to watch some classics

Of the satirical and criticizing nature of course: Team America, Idiocracy, Born on the Fourth of July, Mars Attacks, Man of the Year, The Campaign, Head of State, God Bless America, An American Carol, America: The Motion Picture, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Bamboozled, The Men Who Stare at Goats, They Live, and any Michael Moore film. Hmmm, maybe there’s a reason this list is so long…

Start a book club under the sky booms

Support your local bookstore and grab some of these fine reads: Lies Across America, Stamped from the Beginning, After the Revolution, Pleasure Activism, Rest is Resistance, Killing Rage, any book by James Baldwin, almost any Noam Chomsky book, Killing Hope, Live from Death Row, Divided Minds, POTUS Interruptus, Lies My Teacher Told Me, etc. Hmmm, maybe there’s a reason this list is so long too…

Credit: wmac.org

Wear and decorate with the inverted colors of the United States

Red turns into green, white becomes black, and blue flips to orange (thank goodness The Orange never flipped to Blue).

Credit: Wolf & Badger

The most American things we can do is take care of each other, stand up for what we believe in, and as the Beastie Boys’ satirical anthem has taught us since 1985, “fight for your right to party.” What if for the first time ever in the history of this country we, collectively, tried to actually be the UNITED States of America?

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