It’s finally here.
After almost an entire month of holiday-themed events, all the jingling bells and twinkling lights and creepy child-voiced carols any one person could ever rightfully enjoy, it’s here.
Mother. F*cking. Christmas.
And as relieved as we are, we’re also at least a little misty-eyed at the thought the insane annual celebration of the birth of a possibly real man with undoubtedly fake powers is already set to pass – crazy as the holidays can seem, they’re always over a little sooner than you expect.
Funny how things work that way.
Kind of like this beautiful beast of a democratic experiment we call this country of ours. At this point, for those of us not still clinging to the last vestiges of some poorly placed (and unsettlingly orange-tinged) belief in recapturing a supposedly vacated greatness, we’re all thinking the same thing … what if?
What if our very own wannabe fascist pig finally makes his sick dreams a reality? What if we can’t make him slink back to the gold-plated house of horrors he came from, just praying that we don’t make it much, much worse for him and his band of hate-filled half-humans?
The truth is, it’s going to get worse. For him, hopefully. But maybe for the rest of us too.
But as hard as it might be to look at America and see yourself these days, know that this country still belongs to you. And me. And her. And him. And everyone who thinks this great experiment has been worth all the blood and sweat and tears. Worth crossing a frozen river in frigid temperatures in the dead of a winter’s night, just to catch the invading enemy unawares.
Look. America, like the people who comprise it, is complicated. Its past is complicated (and bloody). Its present is complicated (and bloody). But we’re here. And you are too. And as long as we’re willing to keep fighting for what’s right, for our place as part of that great experiment, willing to move under the cover of darkness, to board a frozen boat in unsteady waters, to do exactly what our turgid, undisciplined foes won’t, then this country will remain just as great – and complicated – as it’s ever been.
Washington Crossing: Delaware Reenactment | Dec. 25. 1pm. Free. Washington Crossing Historic Park. 1112 River Road. Washington, PA 18977. washingtoncrossingpark.org
– CAL SETAR | @CALSFRO
