Happy belated Independence Day! I hope you had a great Fourth.
As you may know, we have an annual celebration at our house, but I was not sure that we could pull it off this year. We are in a rental house this summer, as our home is having some work done. We just got back from traveling. I just wasn’t sure whether the logistics could work.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this is actually an important party. It is important to me, to my family, and I think it has got some importance to our friends and our neighbors at this point too. It is not just a celebration. It is a life lesson about the incredibly special foundation of our country, and it is a chance to bond with our community over our shared patriotism – something of great value and, sadly, something that is more and more scarce these days.
It is also tradition, and traditions are important. Year after year, people get used to the commitment of being with one another on this day, saying the Pledge of Allegiance together, singing the National Anthem together, making the country’s birthday a real salute to our shared ideas.
The Prep
Our friends come over in the days beforehand to try on their costumes, which I get for everyone because it is fun for me. We play patriotic music and maybe have a glass of wine.
This year, we skipped the wigs and my hairstylist did our hair up like colonial ladies. It was such a joy getting ready with my friends. This is a picture of the ‘before.’
Our kids and their friends never say no when we ask them to suit up. Everyone knows what a fun day this is, and they have zero qualms about dressing the part. It really does add something to the festive nature of the day to have the costumes and the whole production.
Those of us who are going to be on stage meet and go over the script that Doug and I draft together. That too is entertaining. This year we actually added a few lines from the play The American Revolution, in which our 10-year-old Thatcher played Betsy Ross earlier this year along with his fourth grade buddies.
We did a little ‘table read’ in the kitchen and then did a shot of tequila before we went out. I think that is also what Thomas Jefferson did before he wrote it. We laugh at ourselves and each other, we get into character, and all the absurd over the top ways a hoop skirt or a colonial wig might inspire.
The Main Event
On the big day, we put on the little play about the lead up to the Declaration of Independence and the state of mind of the Founding Fathers at that point before we get to the big reading. There is really nothing like when you hear the Declaration read out loud and with vigor.
But the absolute best part has become the big finish: When the marching band comes down the street pounding away on their drums as they approach only to burst into song upon arrival, including, of course, the National Anthem.
We started this last year. It was a Herculean effort to find a marching band (as you may have guessed), but my assistant Abby has magical powers that made it happen. For me, this moment is pure happiness. Like last year, I cried tears of joy when that marching band came down the street and many of my friends stopped me and said they had the same feeling.
People are looking to feel patriotic. They are looking to be reminded about what is great about this country and feel all the feels that you get when you sing those words and think about the lyrics of the anthem. Looking around seeing our kids singing it, hands on their hearts, alongside our neighbors, our friends, our community all joined together in song in celebration of America, it is one of those moments you experience knowing every second that passes has become an instant treasured memory.
Eventually, the party wound down and some of our friends migrated to the backyard where we let our hair down a bit and partied colonial style, able to relax now that the big show was over. We just enjoyed being in each other’s company.
We wrapped the evening watching the fireworks together – the bombs bursting in air – and thinking about the beauty and majesty of the night sky on a day like this.
God Bless America
On Sunday, our family went to church. As it did last year, the mass ended with the congregation singing “God Bless America.” What a perfect, beautiful way to cap off our celebratory weekend. I am pretty sure it’s not allowed, but I did sneak a recording of the moment because I wanted you to share it with you. Watch:
What a way to end a mass.
‘You Hit the Lottery’
If you were born in the United States of America, you hit the lottery. You were born into the home of the free and the brave – a place where anything is possible, where merit and hard work can make all the difference for anyone irrespective of class or background, where the poorest kids can grow up to be president no matter their race, or a kid like J.D. Vance – I’ve been thinking about him lately – who was raised in Appalachia without a steady father figure, with soda in his baby bottle, with verbal and physical abuse all too frequent, can grow up to find himself on the shortlist for vice president of the United States.
That is us, the land of opportunity. Yes, still, more than ever.
In fact, America, the liberator of Europe and savior of the world, the winner of the Cold War, the world’s greatest superpower, still, the dominant force in the global order, still, the country that invented rock and roll, the personal computer, the internet, the light bulb, the airplane, blue jeans, the polio vaccine, the telephone, movies, sliced bread. That was us.
The country to which millions all over the world flock, hoping for a chance at a better life. Immigration remains a tough issue in the U.S., but there is a reason that America has more immigrants than any other country in the world by a wide margin. People would do anything to live here, to have an American passport, to enjoy American rights, and most of us were born with that.
So, celebrate, not just on July 4 but every day. Take some time to treasure the gift of being an American and say ‘happy birthday’ to this gorgeous country of ours with its sweeping plains, majestic mountains, sparkling natural lakes, and borders flanked by deep blue oceans. Tell your kids to do it, too.
Godspeed, America, and God bless.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 831 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.