Are We Still Celebrating National Holidays?

Last updated on July 31, 2022

Some Boston citizens and tourists did not celebrate the Fourth of July because of their opposition to recent events, including the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the recent mass school shootings.

Many decided to stay home and ignore the fireworks being shot up in the sky on the Fourth.

Cleo Kidd is a 24-year-old Boston resident who stated that she did not celebrate the Fourth of July, and neither did her close friends and family. She expressed a lack of understanding for why people were celebrating, given the political circumstances and lack of existing rights, especially for women. 

Some participated in watching fireworks but did not have a sense of patriotism given the recent circumstances of civil unrest. Joe Kelly, an 18-year-old camp counselor from Washington D.C, commented that he celebrated the Fourth of July with campers and fellow counselors by watching fireworks and attending a local carnival. Although Kelly celebrated the Fourth, he admitted that he did not feel like America represented the original message of Independence Day, as “America is going backwards.” However, the D.C resident said that he was proud to be American despite recent circumstances.

A few exclaimed that, with everything going on, America still represented true democracy and independence. They watched the fireworks and participated in festivities with American pride. Mark Sizemore, however, a resident from Ohio, said he did celebrate the Fourth of July and the festivities were not lessened by recent circumstances like the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He believed that America still represented freedom and independence and that banning guns would not stop mass shootings. He blamed the mass shootings on “insane” people who were not being put in asylums, which closed in the 1960s. 

Sizemore’s partner, Barbara Pyle, celebrated the Fourth of July in Ohio as well, even though she believed the message of the Fourth of July freedoms applies to men only, not women. 

With continuous examples of a lack of national unity and equality in the United States, the question is, will there be a declining number of celebrations of national holidays among U.S. citizens?