Today In Spite

Treasury ends Obama-era program to help workers save for retirement https://t.co/wmTXs0ppUt

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 29, 2017

July 4, 2017

State of the Union? Decades of institutional damage, accelerated daily, as unprecedented looting proceeds from the top. As Bob Schooley says, "I don't think Trump has realized his usual 'break the company, move onto the next grift' method is a little trickier with an entire country." When that behavior is so obvious, so are "You had a good run, America" cracks, in response.

Yet we know millions more voted against this. I like tengrain's don't give up the ship view of the holiday. Fly the flag and celebrate the day, "tell your Facebook Rage Uncle about why we liberals care so much about America," and stay committed to fighting for the future. Because despite all to the contrary, present and historic, the country can survive only by

... moving towards the promise of the Declaration of Independence: all people 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."

Always, the noble ideals have need to be remembered jointly with the realities. In the words of Frederick Douglass, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

And in A. Philip Randolph's observation: "Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact..."