HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

THIS, OF COURSE, IS THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY of the ongoing political-social experiment defining the United States of America. Here are tidbits gleaned from the past—and from the present—on this occasion. Sit back and consider this extended holiday offering. 

Thomas Jefferson’s Eloquence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It’s a straightforward statement, even if the self-evidence of these truths has yet at times to be completely exhibited. See, for example, “Independence For Whom?,” SimanaitisSays, October 28, 2025, a piece gleaned from “The Unfinished Revolution,” The Atlantic, November 2025.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Eloquence, 187 Years Later. On August 28, 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. NPR offers the entirety of this stirring speed.

The Rev. King said, “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends…. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” 

“With this faith,” he said, “we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Alas, despite current setbacks, I hope and pray that these sentiments one day will be fully realized.

Countering the Setbacks. In the meantime, I counter my psychological whammies with satire. As Michael Flanders noted, “The purpose of satire, it has been rightly said, is to strip away the veneer of comfortable illusion and cozy half-truth. And our job, as I see it, is to put it back again.”

Let’s continue our July 4, 2026, celebration with recent bits of appropriate satire. Do enjoy them all.

Andy Borowitz: A New Declaration. “A New Declaration of Independence from Tyranny,” The Borowitz Report, July 1, 2026, is both satirical—and pointedly accurate. 

You’re encouraged to read it in its entirety. Here, I cite its beginning and conclusion: “We the People refuse to tolerate a despot who threatens our country and the world…. Today we vow to set the United States on a new course. To eliminate racism, sexism, and inequality. To embrace honesty, empathy, and kindness. To form a more perfect union.”

On Continuing Improvement. Yes, on a serious note, as Suzanne St. John-Crane, American Leadership Forum, said on July 3, 2024, “America is a Verb.”

Verbs describe action, and occasionally progress.

Let’s Continue Ridiculing Trump’s Corrupted Reality. I’ve already noted “Mother Nature Gives the Green Finger to Trump’s ‘American Flag Blue,’ ” June 20, 2026. And, what with Washington, D.C., currently sweltering from what Trump terms a hoax, I enjoy Dana Milbank’s “Trump’s Nutty State Fair Hijacked the Fourth of July. And My Pen,” NOTUS Perspectives, July 1, 2026.

Milbank describes, “I went through the magnetometer to enter the National Mall for President Trump’s Great American State Fair this week, putting my pens, notebook, phone and wallet on the table for inspection.”

“ ‘You have to throw away these pens,’ the guard said.”

“ ‘Er, I’m a journalist,’ I replied.”

“ ‘Doesn’t matter. They are sharp and pointy. Could be weapons.’  She confiscated my pens, then let me in.”

“I’ve covered six presidents and reported from China and Russia, but that was the first time I was ordered to surrender a writing implement. What’s particularly outlandish is that the Trump-created group banning pens is called ‘Freedom 250.’ ”

You’re encouraged to read the rest of Milbank’s hilarious MAGA encounters, including a “Moms for America” displaying a children’s book, “My First Board Book: The Second Amendment,” featuring kids playing with toy rifles.

No, Milbank is not making this up. 

He does joke about the crowd count, (another favorite topic of our ego-feasting 친애하는 지도자.

Alexandra’s Day At The Fair. “I Went to the Great American State Fair and I May Never Sleep Again,” writes Alexandra Petri in The Atlantic, July 1, 2026.

This is another must read. Here’s a recurring theme: The George Washington impersonator tells her that “a cop told him this part of D.C. is a ‘top-free’ zone and, due to this special zoning situation, it would be fine to sunbathe topless here.”

“Two hours later,” Petri says, “I realize that this was the same impersonator who portrayed Abraham Lincoln at my wedding reception in 2018! We found out only afterward that he kept going up to people and volunteering the information that he thought Lincoln would have kept slavery to preserve the Union, so the surprise intel about the National Mall being a top-free zone was actually only the second-most-alarming remark I’ve heard him emit unprompted.”

“He is available for parties and also does Dean Martin, or Dean Martin as Abraham Lincoln. (This is one of those paragraphs that really makes you rethink your entire life and all of your choices leading up to this point!)”

The more I read, the more I like Alexandra. 

She concludes leaving the fairgrounds “with a wildly beating heart [the energy-drink buzz] and a budding sunburn. I am relieved not to have taken off my top, despite what George Washington recommended. Happy MAHA Day!”

And a Happy Fourth of July to you. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026