What are we celebrating this weekend, anyway? The memory of something that occurred in our distant past. The ideas of freedom and liberty so earnestly and dramatically expounded by our founding patriots that seem so distant now. Long ago and far away.

We ooh and ahh to the fireworks displays, spend extravagantly on our own fireworks, watch or march in the parade, party and barbeque, fly Old Glory — happily taking a Friday off from work. As long as everything is normal in our own world. But not every American, or hopeful American-to-be, is included in this “normal” America.

What is happening in some families and neighborhoods is not normal. It is frightening. Some people in America this weekend will be having a backyard cookout with family, when suddenly a bunch of masked, heavily-armed, military-clad men; ICE agents, deputies, pardoned Jan 6 rioters, who knows; burst in and grab, wrestle to the ground, their 70 year old grandfather who has been a productive member of this country for 40 years without any criminal record whatsoever, or their teenage nephew who just graduated with honors, tie their hands and drag them out to a van with no Miranda rights spoken, no warrant produced. Where are they being taken? To the “Alligator Alcatraz” that was put up in a hurry, and if it wasn’t for “regulations” it could have been assembled even faster, and even less humanely?

Per DJT, the name came from the concept that “if an immigrant escapes, he gets eaten by an alligator.” They’re even selling T-shirts! Cruelty is a joke to him. Our president.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t enjoy a holiday with family and friends. Actually, it may become more and more important to keep family and friends close. You never know when they may disappear.

How can we go about day to day, and unless we totally block out the news, be unaware, unaffected, by what is happening to immigrants in our country, in our neighborhoods? We’ve always asked, how could the German people let the Nazis do what they did? We now have a chance to find out. This “Big Beautiful Bill” that I assume, has been passed in Congress by now, despite the efforts of Democrats and protesting crowds, will give additional funding to ICE. It is more important to kick out the people who help put food on the American tables than it is to make sure Americans have food on their tables.

This budget reconciliation bill, which DJT affectionately calls his Big Beautiful Bill, is a terrible bill that will cut Medicaid, kick many off their ACA health insurance, decrease Medicare payments, and cut other safety-net programs which keep people from starving and dying. Among the affected population, our veterans will suffer disproportionately. One in four veteran households receives some form of assistance. The VA has already endured staffing cuts with more to come. All to continue the tax break reward to Donald Trump’s billionaire supporters, at the expense of today’s poorest, and all our descendants who get to pay the big beautiful deficit bill.

We go on with our lives, celebrate July Fourth, a budget bill goes through Congress, no big deal. Days pass, things aren’t any better, maybe a bit worse, but hey, where are these drastic cuts? Don’t think those Republicans weren’t thinking about their re-election in November. Don’t think they didn’t know that if the effects of those cuts were to be felt before November, their voters might blame them for taking away their food assistance and medical care. Many of the cuts are scheduled to take effect after the election, of course.

It is usually the case that, until something affects us, it’s hard to be concerned about it. It’s going to affect us. Statistics will make the eyes of a holiday weekend celebrator glaze over, so just remember this: Chautauqua County has already been designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which may or may not still be in operation (I can’t keep track of all the DOGE damage), as a Health Professional Shortage Area. That means we are already in a healthcare crisis. Once Medicaid cuts take effect, it will be a disaster for our area.

So where are we, on this Independence Day, as compared to July 4, 1776? That was the day that the Declaration of Independence document was adopted by 11 of the colonies of the Continental Congress, New York agreed 11 days later.

So actually, July 15? It wasn’t signed until Aug. 2. King George never actually received a formal letter, but news did travel in those days, although slower. His response came in a speech to Parliament on Oct. 31. The vote to declare independence actually happened on July 2, which was the day that John Adams declared would be celebrated for years to come.

The Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. It wasn’t until the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783 that the United States won its independence from Great Britain. The Constitution was ratified by nine of the thirteen states on June 21, 1788, which formed our government. But we picked July Fourth to celebrate. OK, John Adams wasn’t right about everything.

The founders of our Republic were great thinkers and they were aware of the difficulties of preserving a democratic form of government. They were the visionaries of their time. They knew what the future might hold. What would they think of our government now? Let’s hear from them:

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” — James Madison

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operation, perverted it into tyranny.”

“When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles.” — Thomas Jefferson

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” “It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” — Benjamin Franklin

They have warned us. While we celebrate, remember that they intended “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” when they told a tyrant they weren’t going to let him take those things away from them.

We’re their sons and daughters in spirit. We protest injustice, cruelty, and wannabe tyrants too.

Susan Bigler is a Sheridan resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com