This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I am not sure I need to write anything on this July 4^th.

Still, I persist.

So, on this Independence Day, I reflect two thoughts:

• On one hand, I worry about what this country is becoming, one which prizes disagreement over reasoned discussion.   And, it is often said, if you don’t agree with me, I hate you or I even may shoot you.
• On the other hand, I know this country has withstood challenges in the past and emerged stronger.  I say that as a person who lived through the Vietnam War (I came close to going, though I served in the military in this country, while I saw friends killed or maimed in that unjust war) and Watergate, the latter now 50 years in the rearview mirror.

Arguably, our country recovered from both of those tragedies and could recover from the new ones we face today.

By the way, what is the history of Independence Day anyway?

This:  The Fourth of July — also known as Independence Day — has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941.  But the full tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution.

On this day, this year, 2022, I share Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne’s aspiration:

“I (Dionne says) had hoped to write a thoroughly celebratory column about the Fourth of July.  It’s when we come together to cheer a nation that has struggled for 246 years to make the principle of equality a reality.

“And even this disconcerting moment does not make me feel any less grateful that this is my country.  I’m devoted to its boisterous freedom, its energetic inventiveness, its rambunctious culture, its democratic aspirations, and its welcome mat (yes, occasionally pulled back) for people from around the world.”

At the same time, I agree with New York Times writer Peter Baker who said this about American democracy in view of the person who has set out to destroy it, Donald Trump:

“And so nearly two and a half centuries after the 13 American colonies declared independence from an unelected king, the nation is left weighing a somber new view of the fragility of its democracy — and the question of what, if anything, could and should be done about it.”

What Baker means is what the country should do about Trump.

Even so, I persist in holding out hope for our future as a nation.

Happy 4^th.

And this footnote:  One our nation’s symbols, the American flag, has been co-opted by Trump and his minions.  Still, I display the flag on our house here in Salem, Oregon, and I do so as a pledge to keep the flag as a symbol of genuine American democracy, which is what it stands for no matter the co-option.