Reaching a quarter-millennium as a nation is a massive milestone, but for many of us living here right now, it comes with a lot of heavy mixed emotions. It is entirely possible to love the land you live on and the people you share it with, while feeling deeply critical of the system running the show. You can be an American citizen without being proud of the choices your government is making.Looking back at our history, the United States has always operated on a massive contradiction. The founding documents promised liberty, equality, and unalienable rights, but the reality of how the country was built tells a much darker story.From the very beginning, the growth of this nation relied on the brutal displacement and systemic violence against Native American populations. For nearly a century, the entire economic backbone of the country was fueled by the horrific system of chattel slavery. Even after abolition, the legal system enforced decades of Jim Crow segregation, forcing generations of citizens to fight, bleed, and die just to secure basic civil rights. In foreign policy, the history of interventions across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East shows a pattern of prioritizing global power over local sovereignty. These aren't just footnotes in a textbook; they are the structural foundations of the modern state.Fast forward to the present day, and the frustration with the system has reached a boiling point. The current Trump administration has amplified these divides to an extreme degree. From the perspective of its harshest critics, the administration's actions represent a devastating assault on public interest—marked by severe rollbacks in environmental protections that jeopardize the planet, aggressive immigration policies that separate families, and trade tariffs that squeeze everyday consumers. The focus on heavy deregulation and corporate favoritism often feels like a direct hand-off to corporate interests, leaving working-class citizens to shoulder the burden.This ties directly into a modern economic landscape where millionaires and billionaires hold a disproportionate and destructive amount of power over our daily lives. When a tiny fraction of the population hoards more wealth than entire states, the democracy suffers. That extreme concentration of capital buys political influence, shapes legislation, and ensures that the tax structures continue to favor the ultra-rich, while funding for public schools, healthcare, and infrastructure continues to crumble. It is hard to celebrate freedom when the economy is rigged to keep the wealthy secure and the working class exhausted.To those who actively support these political directions: the real-world consequences of these policies are felt deeply by vulnerable communities every day. It leaves many questioning how the disruption of innocent people's lives and livelihoods can be viewed as progress for the nation.So, here we are on the 250th 4th of July. We are still living here, still working, and still creating. We don't celebrate the politicians, the billionaires, or the historical atrocities. We celebrate the resilience of the people who survive under this system, and the ongoing fight to actually make those promises of equality real one day.And while we in the lucky stars crew dont support america's current and past doings, we still live here (well, most of us do) so we'll raise a glass to you america, Happy birthday. Lets aim to do better.
