I hope you all had a great Fourth of July holiday. I loved every minute of it, and I especially enjoyed watching the insane hard left cry their tears about their hatred of our country. People like Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who can’t stand America and wanted to make the day about reparations – specifically, she thinks $14 trillion should be the “starting point” but technically ‘we’ owe something like $90 trillion. People like the two guys behind Ben & Jerry’s, who sold their company a few years for something like $300 million, but they still hate America. They think it should be a day of atonement toward the Native Americans. How about, no?!
I love how these people are their own worst enemies, making their own lives miserable – choosing to always see the darkness, always to mire themselves in hate and grievance – instead of enjoying a beautiful day like yesterday. Those of us living patriotic, happy, loving lives need not worry too much about these people. They’re depressed and rageful to a degree well beyond what any of us could ever hope to cause. Good luck to them in their aggrieved, frustrated, invariably lackluster lives. Just know the rest of us are having a great time and will not be doing any of the insane things you demand.
A Day of Celebration
Here at the Kelly-Brunt house on the Jersey Shore, it was a great day of celebration. We went big, as has become our tradition. I surprised myself with this, but I had several moments yesterday where my eyes filled with tears over the incredible honor it is to be an American. We’ve been hosting these celebrations for a few years now, but we only started dressing up in colonial costumes and leaning into the Founding Fathers theme the past two years.
Getting ready for the party is always so fun. Over a hundred people attend but about 20 dress up and read or act in our little preamble of a play before we read the Declaration of Independence. Our friends come over to our house to try on the costumes and wigs I have for everyone. Doug and the kids dress up, too. We laugh, and play patriotic music, and just have a good time.
Among those who participated this year and last are Alison and Tom Barklage. You may remember them from the story we shared with you about their 17-year-old son Blake (you can watch it here). He died of sudden cardiac arrest last year, and the family – including their daughter Lexie – has been an example to us all on how to heal after trauma. If they can find a way to smile and celebrate, so can you.
All told, the preparations are fun and festive and get you in the mood to have a good time.
Revisiting History
On the big day, people arrive and we kick things off with the pledge. It is followed by a play about how the American rebellion got started and what led to the decision to write a Declaration of Independence – the unrest in the 13 colonies, the anger over how unfairly the king was treating his subjects. Doug and I put this together and rewrite it year to year with the help of family and friends who add new scenes. The point is to remind people of why the U.S.A. came into existence.
In our play, we have scenes that show what we were trying to avoid in forming our own union – a government that was overreaching, that disrespected the rights of its citizens, that interfered with the judiciary, that denied the public important rights like trial by jury – and what the vision was for how things could be.
We had Thomas Payne, who wrote Common Sense, and Paul Revere. Doug played Thomas Jefferson with our friend Andrew as John Adams, and then came the reading of the Declaration. It really is an inspirational document and one of the most revered in human history. If you didn’t take the time to read it yesterday, I encourage you to go do it. It is an honest acknowledgment of how man’s default tends to be to put up with hard things until they get so bad, he cannot. It is an acknowledgement that God – not government – has granted us certain unalienable rights, like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Among those who read and were our honored guests were two guys you know very well – Rich Lowry and Michael Brendan Dougherty of National Review. They kicked off and ended the reading of the Declaration, and it was so nice to have them there and to meet their families.
After we finished the reading, we broke into a rendition of “America the Beautiful.” I was inspired by the moment we had at mass over the weekend, and it was so lovely to look around at our friends and family and hear them singing.
Band-ing Together
What happened next was something that I’ve been working on with Abby for six months. Six months ago, I told Abby I wanted a marching band at the Fourth of July party. It wasn’t going to be cheap, and I knew that. But this was something we could share together with our community that would stir feelings of patriotism, love, joy, and deep connection to our country and our fellow man. I don’t regret one penny of what it took.
Abby told me it was going to be a big order, but I believed we could do it. A few months into planning, Abby was still concerned about the logistics because marching bands are not easy to come by in the summer. But because Abby will bust through brick walls to make things happen if she knows that it’s really truly important to me, she managed to assemble a band.
They couldn’t wear their school uniforms, so we chose very patriotic red, white, and blue outfits. Abby had them bussed to the local firehouse to get ready and had pizza and drinks ready for them. They were on standby until we finished singing “America the Beautiful.” At that point, you could hear the sounds of the drumbeats as they marched toward our party, and the crowd was just slack-jawed watching this performance.
Hats off to these young college kids who just made our hearts sing yesterday. They had to learn all these patriotic songs, and I could not have been more impressed or more grateful. They nailed it.
With Gratitude
My assistant Abby, who is also like my little sister and the COO of my life, is a star. This is an opportunity for me to stop and say thank you to the people who support me and help make things like this possible. Hopefully, it inspires you to take a moment to think about your life and your connection with our country and what it means to you. This whole party turned into a connection with friends, neighbors, and loved ones and a chance to think about America, our history, and what it means to us.
I come into this day renewed, happy, more settled, and more certain in my own love of country and my gratitude for having been born here and living right now in an important time with all of you. We go through it together. When I sat there and listened to the band playing the national anthem, among other songs, I was thinking about how the audience of this show join me and my team every day out there on the frontlines.
There’s a million other things you could be doing, but you take time out of your busy day to listen and connect here because you care. What we’re doing together is not just news. We’re all out here fighting for the heart of our country – what we stand for, what we believe in. I think it’s an important mission we’re all on, and I am grateful to you.
You can check out Megyn’s full thoughts on the Fourth of July holiday by tuning in to episode 581 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.