I will not apologize for this
Dear 50% of America This 4th of July, I sincerely wished you a happy birthday. You are wonderful and have a huge heart. After January 6, 2021, I apologized for saying I couldn’t wait for the older generation to be gone so we could get our country back. Our U.S. Capitol had just been attacked in an attempted coup, led by a corrupt defeated “president” who had put us through four years of divisive anguish. Those were not my own words, but the words of the younger generations sick of a generation that seems hellbent on destroying America. I just repeated what I had heard.
You also claimed you are “fiscally conservative” but that is another Republican lie. Democrats keep saving the U.S. economy after Republican presidents destroy it.
But I will not apologize for skipping the fireworks this 4th of July. Two of my friends had just been murdered in yet another mass shooting in the Chicago area. I told my husband I didn’t want to go out that evening, but he insisted. At the dinner table, other guests brought up the shooting, not me. I tried to end the conversation saying I was having panic attacks. They continued to make excuses for the shooter and said it was not Trump’s fault, even though the shooter had attended Trump rallies, was a known white supremacist, and Trump literally campaigned on white supremacy.
50% of the people at the dinner table were Republicans. Yet none of them will ever take responsibility for letting the assault weapons ban lapse in 2004 under G.W. Bush and the Republican controlled Congress. They just continue to live in denial and make excuses so there is never any gun reform.
As far as I’m concerned, on the 4th of July, I was the polite one, quietly leaving the table and skipping the fireworks. But I will not leave my home in America. I will not be polite and remain silent as the corrupt conservative SCOTUS grants states the right to take away a woman’s right to choose, while taking away state’s rights to regulate guns, and breaches the separation of church and state. Next, they’ll try to take away our voting rights.
Frankly, I’m shocked you aren’t as angry and outraged at what is happening in America as I am. You want to make me a pariah. So be it. But I will not apologize for loving my country. Happy Birthday.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.