Celebrating the Fourth. Not my history

Immigrants and new citizens might celebrate the birthday of their new country.

They might approve - or not - some, much, none, or all of its history.

But at any rate it wasn't and isn't their own history, or the history of their ancestors or their ancestral countries.

To new Americans, certainly it is not true that the entire history of America, from colonial times or from 1776, was their history.

Not the Salem witch trials.

Not the slaughter and deportation of the Cherokees.

Not the Civil War.

Not the era of Jim Crow.

Not Prohibition.

Not Mr. Wilson's war.

And so on.

How much of it is your history, or the history of your ancestors?

Well, when did they get here?

And how much of it did they take part in, support, or approve?

Watching Ken Burns's Prohibition.

The Horrible Regiment of Women, on the move.

PS.

Best night for fireworks in years.

Clear, not hot, no bugs (did the mosquitoes disappear with the bees?).

Happy Fourth.