Happy Birthday, US of A! You made it to 250.
It’s been two and a half centuries, and you are still here. A little the worse for wear right now. But you still have most of your vital parts — a constitution and what still passes for a presidency, a Supreme Court and a Congress.
On the down side — your current White House is riddled with corruption. In just one instance of many, your president has taken in a mind-boggling $636 million from his recently issued $TRUMP cryptocurrency. Admirers who bought into the scheme lost money. Has your president noticed?
And too, you have let the oligarchy get away with murder lately. The CEOs of Amazon, Meta, Google, Open AI, Apple, TikTok and Tesla all had seats of honor at your current president’s 2025 inauguration.
Thirteen days later, your mega-oligarch Elon Musk took a chainsaw to USAID. Within months, hundreds of thousands of people around the world who depended on you for help died of malnutrition and disease.
Things are not looking good for you, US of A. Unprecedented corruption in the White House. The rule of law at risk. A way-too-powerful oligarchy. Income disparity. Underfunded IRS and FTC. Insensitivity to the world around you.
It’s a big, big day today — the birthday of the country with the oldest constitution* on the planet. But your birthday is not getting all that much attention. The World Cup playoffs and the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding are clocking way more media time than you are. What’s up with that?
Good luck, US of A. Let’s hope you can get your act together in time for your 300th birthday. I won’t be here to celebrate in 2076. But I’m hoping you will be.
Postscript: Flying the Flag on the Fourth of July
Before Jon died, he was the one to lift our American flag into its bracket for the Fourth of July. This year, I asked the gardener to do it.
But first, I asked if he felt comfortable participating in the displaying of Old Glory. I was worried — might my gardener be one of the increasing number of Americans who take no pride in their country or its flag, who disdain it even?
A Gallup poll last month revealed that, while 55% of U.S. adults were extremely proud to be American in 2001, that figure had dropped to 33 percent in 2026.
But the gardener didn’t hesitate. He took my flag from me and hoisted it into place.
* Make that the oldest codified constitution in the world. San Marino has a really old constitution spread out over many years and many documents.
Hmmm. Maybe I should have written — “a lot worse for wear.”