America has always been a cauldron of inconsistencies; so often in our history we’ve ended up with brilliance, tolerance, and progress only after every other option has been exhausted. We’re at it still, with willfully ignorant cowards, cretins, and opportunistic shit-stirrers hoping an alternately roiled and apathetic populace will focus on trivial differences while missing the big picture (hint, it has nothing to do with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but a crusty and soulless percentile dividing obscene amounts of wealth and setting the world ablaze, as the White Capitalist God intended).
But still. Even at times when the most recalcitrantly optimistic amongst us feel hope is a sucker’s game, I find it instructive—and inspiring—to consider that, to take only one from many other examples, this country, which beats and stymies its best citizens, is capable of producing a genius like Thelonious Monk. Despite every systemic disadvantage and all obstacles placed in his path, he lived, he played, and he makes us all immortal. Any country that can claim “Straight, No Chaser” is worth preserving and fighting for.
Onward and Happy Independence-ish Day. (p.s.: if heaven exists the solo that begins at 3:17 is what you hear as you stride into the light.)