Losing Freedom And Our Descent Into Shadow
Why Does This July Fourth Feel Like We Are Less Free Than Ever?
Photo by Sixian Li on Unsplash
It’s July the Fourth, and speaking for myself, and possibly for thousands of other Americans, it isn’t feeling very free or celebratory.
For the spiritually and politically aware amongst us, it seems like an alarmingly rapid descent into our collective shadow, a time where we are revisiting shameful periods of our history in a modern-day form: fascism, racism, turning our backs on the poor, but worse, a sick and shocking extremism where the Federal and State governments are creating hell on earth.
All of this is due to a Congress that sold us out with a codified transfer of wealth from the deeply corrupt and greedy to the exclusive benefit of the even more deeply corrupt and greedy.
Bouncing around in my fractured mental and emotional state are memories of the July Fourth “ideal,” contrasted to the current reality of America.
In my ideal: my grandfather, a hard-working man who raised five daughters and numerous grandchildren, on childhood vacations, taking us to the best viewing spot for the annual fireworks display, the tall control and observation tower of one the levee locks of Georgia’s Coosa River.
He was a man we grandkids looked up to in awe; he had the grip of a bear, definitely got his hands dirty, and, as head electrician for the city of Rome, never slept during thunderstorms, waiting for the inevitable phone call to do his part servicing electrical outages.
My grandmother would also carry sleepless nights during thunderstorms as her burden.
In a small town, he was the man who dispatched electrical workers to service broken equipment, traffic lights, sewage treatment plants, and other facilities that kept the city from descending into chaos.
If we were lucky, we got to participate in another July 4th tradition, climbing the stairs in the old city clock to look out over the entire city.
My grandfather would extract another key from his magical ring, the key that opened up the works to the city of Rome’s most famous landmark, which overlooked Rome’s “Seven Hills.”
To a child, especially, it was an exciting adventure, with a winding staircase similar to a lighthouse; the grandkids would climb to the top, where the enormous mechanical works were housed. Just above the 12 o’clock mark was a knockout in the wooden clock face large enough to offer a view overlooking the entire town.
It’s now a historic landmark and thousands of people have made that walk to the top. That clock is a part of the story of the building of this nation, part of the good and the bad, including secession and the Civil War, which, as a child, I was not quite aware of.
It was fully restored in January of this year, and, at 104 ft. tall, is a magnificent monument.
Decades later, on this July 4th of 2025, I wonder how my grandfather, who was distinctly conservative in his beliefs, (his favorite country song, he once declared to me, was Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee”) would view America’s current descent into unabashed cruelty, wealth transfers to the richest billionaires, and a national police force that spends most of their resources and time inflicting domestic terror.
I would hope that he would see Donald Trump as I do, through the lens of truth, as an agent of chaos, who has gutted the country and sold out not only its people to the highest bidder, but most of its assets, all for Oval Office swag: an autographed MAGA hat, and an Alligator Alcatraz T-shirt.
Applying that same lens of truth, there are no more checks, balances, or direct opposition to these fascist tendencies and reverse Robin Hood legislative strategies. The entire legislative branch, as many astute writers and journalists like Chris Hedges have noted, over and over, is thoroughly corrupt, bought and sold. Ironically, on the holiday celebrating freedom, they, the legislators, and we, the people, are less free than ever.
The Supreme Court, which once stood as a firm counterbalance to the excesses of the Executive Branch and Congress, has capitulated to serve the demands of the Trump regime.
“The decision gives the Trump administration a green light to move forward with third-country deportations under its executive order, even to destinations not previously clarified in court-approved removal documents.
Earlier, a district judge had found the government violated its April injunction by failing to provide a "meaningful opportunity" for six of the migrants to make their case against removal. The Supreme Court stayed that injunction in June, and Thursday’s clarification makes clear the lower court’s follow-up order can’t stand either.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented sharply, accusing the court of enabling deportations that could lead to torture or death.”
When I speak of shadow as a negative spiritual force, it comes from intuition and observation, perhaps not reliable barometers.
To me, the shadow is evidenced by increasing spending on what will become half of the force inflicting domestic terror: the privatized, for-profit internment camps being rapidly deployed in Florida.
As a resident, I’m aware of the corruption being quietly whispered about at the highest level of state governance, a state that allegedly can’t help its residents recover from past disasters, has somehow found the money to prioritize expanding the modern-day equivalent of concentration camps in dual locations. Sweating and smiling for the Trump-friendly media at ground zero, “Alligator Alcatraz,” DeSantis, Trump, and Kriti Noem, the ICE queen, all laugh and wink, celebrating with maniacal glee the fate that awaits any “criminal escapee.”
They never mention the fact that the majority of detainees have no criminal record in this blanket effort to dehumanize them. Of course, Florida’s Governor DeSantis, in his ecstatic fever dreams of deportation camps in every state, is probably also imagining a lucrative, if theoretical, post-governorship corporate reward in which Trump expands deportation camps from individual states into regions, a hell zone in which people like himself might be promoted to something like a regional prison warden for the new detainment system.
(Update 7/7/2025, about 24 hours after this was posted, it appears that Trump and DeSantis are already encouraging the expansion of Alligator Alcatraz-style concentration camps to all red states, as if it were a healthy, viral, sociological plan, but it appears that, at least as I type this, there is no Federal money being proffered to cover the expenses of AA, as it appears DeSantis simply robbed FEMA funds for upcoming Hurricane relief.)
As an experienced JAG corps attorney who allegedly was responsible for “ensuring the guards and other military personnel followed the law” at Guantanamo, it seems to the casual observer that DeSantis has an odd attraction to, and an irrational, maniacal enthusiasm for, prisoner detention.
But perhaps there is some spiritual justice: it took 8 days for the alleged “Hurricane Proof “Alligator Alcatraz to be constructed. Yet, it is already falling apart due to winds and floods from the hard tropical weather.
DeSantis, in an interview with fascist-friendly Fox News, so devalues any group of non-whites that he bragged to “host” Steve Doocy that (paraphrased) no one was around for 50 miles except for pythons and alligators, implying escape to be impossible, never mentioning to the breakfast crowd waking up to “Fox and Friends” that the Miccosukee and Seminole Native American tribes are only a few yards from this hellscape.
They still hunt, fish, and are spiritually connected to the Everglades, and see this abomination as an ecological and spiritual crime. The Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, ironically, are the original Americans in that region and will suffer the negative consequences of the existence of the “facility”.
The shadow side could not be more evident than the maniacal glee with which proponents of human degradation celebrate as if this were some pinnacle of ultimate freedom that the founding fathers would have celebrated. This MAGA salesman, who popped out of nowhere in my social media awareness, smiles from the depraved shadows as he sells human degradation and misery as a cool baseball hat.
Surely, we have descended into a very dark place when this has become hyper-normalized.
If that all wasn’t enough to threaten illusions of freedom, consider that Trump has already sent a contingent of Marines to “Alligator Alcatraz” to “assist” in ICE operations, effectively setting the stage for ICE to transform and morph into a domestic military, policing not only these detainment operations but suppressing any dissent over these illegal operations.
To be clear, Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill gave ICE the equivalent of the budget for the military of an entire country, in the unhinged, maniacal effort to “supercharge” immigrant deportation.
Consider this statement from spiritual and religious interfaith organizations like the Arizona Interfaith Vigil and the American Immigration Council, and contrast it with pro deportation statements above:
“The American Immigration Council called the legislation the largest investment in detention and deportation in U.S. history. Policy analysts also estimated that between 12 million and 17 million people could lose access to health care under the broader budget framework tied to the bill.
After the Senate vote, the American Immigration Council issued a statement criticizing the legislation for focusing on detention and deportation while failing to address structural issues in the immigration system.
“This bill will deprive 12 to 17 million Americans of basic health care while investing unprecedented levels of funding in the president’s increasingly unpopular mass deportation agenda,” Nayna Gupta, the council’s policy director, said.
“This budget is a moral document,” Contreras said. “We should be investing in our communities, not in disappearing our neighbors.”
Organizers said the gathering reflected ongoing efforts among faith communities to create visible expressions of support for immigrant families and to advocate for more humane immigration policies.”
As I type this, I can hear distant fireworks, the cheap, shocking, concussive homemade fireworks that can be bought in bulk. It’s not even evening yet.
It is, I suppose, an industry of sorts in Florida, a state where, taking certain exits off of I-95, roadside stands sell sketchy and dangerous products and over-ripe fruit.
I can’t think of a better analogy for the selling of spiritual malevolence wrapped up under the deceptive guise of “law” on this July 4th.
At least I have my memories of my childhood joy at the levee towers.
Stay safe and remain vigilant.