The Melting Pot

I wish we’d done better.

I remember watching the 1976 national fireworks in our house on Rosewood drive. They were amazing. The whole bicentennial season had been amazing. I would tell our kids to remember this, because they wouldn’t see its like again. They were six, four, and two--I’m fairly certain they don’t remember much of it anyway.

But I think I was right. They won’t see its like again.

Although I’m political enough to have absolute opinions on how we didn’t do better, much of what I feel is just that: opinion. Not that I don’t have facts to back them up--I do--but so do others who don’t agree. We use different sources, though, and our opinions are colored by our experiences.

On his Down the Road blog, Jim Grey published an essay this morning. Actually, he published two of them. I wish I’d written them both. Since I didn’t, I’m sharing the links here. I hope you take the time to read them. Read this one first: https://blog.jimgrey.net/2026/07/04/the-world-came-to-party-and-we-were-ready/ Enjoy it.

Then read this one: https://blog.jimgrey.net/2026/07/04/i-remember-when-this-felt-like-my-party-too/ Enjoy it, too. It is an indicator of where we are that I’ll admit the second one is my favorite. Because we are there with waiting weeks and even months for health care. We are there with a prescriptionwe couldn’t afford without the VA’s help. We are there with resenting Indiana’s “systematic dismantling its public schools.”

Down the Road - Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Back to 1976 ... no, actually, back to 1965, when I went on vacation with friends to Washington DC. On the 4th, we went to the national fireworks, sitting on blankets with a few hundred thousand other people. I don’t remember exactly where it was--it seems as if we could see the reflecting pool from where we were, but mostly I remember how it felt. How things looked. How I was so enthralled that this magnificent place was ours. I had clung to the term melting pot since first hearing it in fourth grade in Mrs. Kotterman’s classroom, considering it to be a perfect tagline for the USA long before I knew what a tagline was.

I’m still clinging to it. I still believe it. I hope we allow our divisions to melt so that we can come together in the way that was intended. With freedoms that don’t come at the cost of others, with cultural differences that allow us to be who we are, with whatever religion we do or don’t want. With respect for each other.

I still wish we’d done better, but I also have faith that we can. That we will before it’s too late. Happy 4th of July. Have a good week. Be nice to ... everybody.