US tries to enjoy July Fourth marred by parade shooting
Return of festivities gives many cause to celebrate
A shooting that left at least six people dead at an Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb rattled Monday’s celebrations across the U.S. and further rocked a country awash in turmoil.
The parade in Highland Park began about 10 a.m. but was suddenly halted 10 minutes later after shots were fired. Hundreds of paradegoers fled the parade route.
“On a day that we came together to celebrate community and freedom, we are instead mourning the tragic loss of life and struggling with the terror that was brought upon us,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said.
The news came as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together. It was supposed to be a day for flocking to parades, devouring hot dogs and burgers at backyard barbecues and gathering under exploding fireworks.
These are precarious times: An economic recession lurks, and the Highland Park shooting will weigh on a national psyche already raw from mass shootings like those seen recently at a Texas elementary school and a New York supermarket.
Sharp social and political divisions have also been laid bare by recent Supreme Court decisions overturning the federal right to abortion and striking down a New York law limiting who can carry a gun in public.
However, many had reason to gather and celebrate for the first time in three years amid easing COVID-19 precautions.
Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest returned to its traditional location in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood after two years elsewhere thanks to the pandemic.
“It’s beautiful to be back here,” Joey “Jaws” Chestnut told ESPN after winning the men’s competition by downing 63 hot dogs and buns. Miki Sudo ate 40 franks to win the women’s event.
In ceremonies across the country, some would swear oaths of citizenship.
During a ceremony for naturalized citizens held at Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told 52 people originally from 42 countries that they were essential to building a strong labor force.
“Immigrants strengthen our workforce, and, in the process, help drive the resiliency and vitality of our economy,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for the
Monday event.
For many, July Fourth also was a chance to set aside political differences and to celebrate unity.
“There’s always something to divide or unite us,” says Eli Merritt, a political historian at Vanderbilt University whose upcoming book traces the fraught founding of the United States.
But he said he sees the Jan. 6 hearings probing last year’s storming of the U.S. Capitol as a reason for hope, an opportunity to rally behind democratic institutions. Even though not all Americans agree with the committee’s work, Merritt said he is heartened that it’s at least somewhat bipartisan.
“Moral courage as a locus for Americans to place hope, the willingness to stand up for what is right and true in spite of negative consequences to oneself,” he said. “That is an essential glue of constitutional democracy.”