This July 4th, many gatherings celebrating freedom in America have been cancelled in the name of Covid-19.
In some cases, cities have announced they will close parks, and citizens will not be permitted to gather in public spaces to watch the remaining Independence Day fireworks displays. Many parades, concerts and festivals have been cancelled, with organizers suggesting citizens opt for small, backyard-based, social-distanced celebrations instead. Some cities will air recordings of previous years’ fireworks online. Many of these cuts and cancellations are no doubt made with the best intentions and with public safety in mind. An ultra-litigious society feeds fear of reprisal and responsibility for cities concerned that citizens might contract Covid-19 by attending community-wide gatherings.
These cancellations and downsized celebrations do not occur in a vacuum, however, but in a landscape that has in recent weeks been characterized by heavily attended, non-social distanced Black Lives Matter protests, riots and gay “pride” parades. In a time when many have buried friends and family members with only a handful of mourners present due to gathering restrictions, the world watched as multiple politically-charged, highly-attended funerals and memorials were held for George Floyd. Videos circulating on social media have shown crowds filling the streets, dancing to the Cupid Shuffle during the same time that visitors have not been allowed in hospitals to meet newborn babies or to bid farewell to dying relatives. Not only that, but church gatherings have been suppressed in many states. In some cases, courts have upheld actions against churches desiring to gather.
Americans have watched these scenes unfold from their living rooms. The message has become loud: You may gather for violence, lawlessness and depravity. You may not gather for religion, family or celebrations of freedom.
Perhaps more clearly: You may gather for socialist ideals, but not American ideals. In America.
If you have not surmised already, the American way of life is being challenged, and outrightly so. The Founders of Black Lives Matter do not even hide the fact that they are “trained Marxists.” Indeed, they appear quite proud of it.
Karl Marx, the 19th century socialist co-author of The Communist Manifesto and essentially grandfather of Cultural Marxism, had among his ideals the abolition of the family, the abolition of eternal truth and religion, the abolition of the past (history), and the abolition of the individual — all things that characterize our values and freedom. The American way, as we’ve known it and as our founders intended it, stands in complete opposition to Marx’s ideas and by extension the ideas of the Black Lives Matter movement. How conspicuous that the things not permitted under Covid-19 prevention — family events such as birth and death, religious services, and celebrations of freedom such as the 4th of July — are associated with those things opposed by Marx in writings that undergirded the travesties of the USSR and Nazi Germany.
Whether you believe news coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic to be accurate or inflated, it is not difficult to conceive of a scenario in which a real pandemic may be being exploited to chip away at the American way. As the weeks wear on, Americans at the very least ought to pay close attention, lest a country full of mostly well-meaning, cooperative citizens becomes bamboozled into giving away hard-fought liberties we may never again regain.
While proud Marxists and even socialists serving in the United States Congress attempt to redefine America, may the words of Lee Greenwood ring both true and compelling this 4th of July: “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.”