July 4 brings out the best, worst in people

This July 4 we saw a lot of flag waving and people sporting all kinds of patriotic clothing and hats. Hill City had its first weekend celebration in many years highlighted by a patriotic parade Saturday, July 3. Custer followed with its annual B-1 bomber flyover that kicked off the Kids Parade followed by a Patriots Parade July 4.
Patriotic songs were sung and the combined Custer VFW-American Legion honor guard fired a salute followed by the playing of Taps to conclude the ceremony. The crowd for this event was the largest we have seen on July 4 by far. They paid attention when Jim Hattervig read “That Ragged Old Flag” by Johnny Cash. Long may she wave!
To top off the evening in Custer thousands of spectators from all over the country witnessed one of the finest fireworks display in the entire region. There were pyrotechnics either being propelled or exploding in the air for over 20 minutes. The computer-generated show also attracts local people from all around our area of the Black Hills.
Events like these locally and around the country make us all proud to be Americans, most of us at least. After all, we are the United States of America, in spite of what we see and hear happening in other parts of the country. Most of us are getting real tired and angry when we see what other groups and organizations are trying to do to divide us with bogus charges of white supremacy and systemic racism. America is not a racist country.
It doesn’t help when certain members of Congress, Democrat representatives and the president himself, degrade our country with their divisive remarks about how racist our country is and always has been. The so-called Critical Race Theory that has reared its ugly head in that it teaches that all white people are racist and have sought to suppress minority races, especially black people, in all aspects of our society.
During the July 4 celebration, the leader of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in Utah declared our flag was a “symbol of hatred” and said in a Facebook post “When we see the flag we know the person flying it is a racist.” The only for-sure racists in this country are leaders and members of Marxist organizations like BLM who seek to destroy the very fabric of our society by dividing us by using the race card.
Then there was the ultra-liberal New York Times newspaper that said the American flag is a “divisive symbol” and ran a long story about how the flag is a divisive symbol for many Americans. Leave it to the Times to publish such liberal nonsense on one of our nation’s most cherished and celebrated holidays. July 4 should be a time when we can all come together and remember the struggles and challenges the framers of our Constitution faced and overcame as they put together a government that has lasted now for over 245 years.
We should take comfort in the fact that there are many, many more of us patriots in this country than there are kneelers and critics of our nation and its representative flag. Our framers put together a system of government that has worked quite well up to now. We are facing challenges from those who are attempting to tear us apart from within by trying to divide us.
We need to resist these revolutionists and their communist ideologies at any cost. America is the last hope for so many people in the world who are seeking a better life. We are still the shining beacon of freedom that welcomes all legal immigrants.
Our American flag—long may she wave!

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