They Launched 850,000 Fireworks | 250 "Celebration" Recap
What happened in D.C., what happened across America, and what it says about Freedom 250.
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TL;DR
America turned 250, and the administration let off 850,000 fireworks. A Code Red air alert. A campaign speech where a birthday was supposed to be. And while the smoke settled over Washington, the country logged its 224th mass shooting of the year. The next chance to show what this country is comes July 17 to 19, the Good Trouble Lives On Weekend of Action.
Washington, D.C. The Fourth of July.
A hundred degrees before noon, and the parade is already canceled. By afternoon the sky goes dark and the National Mall is evacuated for a thunderstorm. By night, the President walks onto a stage no president had used for a July 4 speech in seventy-four years and talks about voting restrictions and communism while people wait.
Then the fireworks start. Eight hundred and fifty thousand of them.
And by the next morning, the city that was ordered to celebrate is warned about the unsafe air conditions.
Watch until the 20 seconds when the time-lapse kicks in.
Timelapse credit to Dave Statter, watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/885930180677044
Last year, the official National Mall Fourth of July fireworks show used about 7,000 fireworks
This year: 850,000. That is roughly 121 times bigger.
If it ran forty minutes, that is something like 354 explosions every second, for forty straight minutes.
The threat in that air was not “smog.” A University of Maryland expert told NBC Washington the danger was fine particulate matter, PM2.5: particles small enough to travel deep into your lungs and into your bloodstream, linked to heart and lung damage. That’s why D.C. went to a Code Red alert and forecast a Code Purple, the level where the air is unhealthy for everyone, not just the vulnerable.
Trump’s Speech
Trump delivered a campaign-style speech calling for voting restrictions, proof-of-citizenship requirements, limiting mail ballots, warnings about “communism.” Aside from his own 2019 address, no president had given a July 4 speech on the National Mall since 1951.
The reason for that is that the Fourth is supposed to be the one day that belongs to all of us.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found many Americans already felt the 250th events had gotten too political including a majority of Americans overall, three-quarters of Democrats, and half of Republicans.
He counted the crowd, like always
After videos of empty seats went around, Trump said 422,000 people were there before the storm and 150,000 came back for the speech. Those are Trump’s numbers, and no independent confirmation has been provided.
While the smoke settled over Washington, emergencies kept unfolding across the country with more shootings.
By Monday morning, the Gun Violence Archive had counted at least 224 mass shootings in America this year, along with 6,604 gun-related fatalities.
At least 43 people had been killed in shootings since early Saturday. At least six mass shootings were recorded on the Fourth, with more by Sunday.
One of those shootings happened at a Fourth of July cookout near Coney Island, where eight people were shot, four adults and four children, ages 6, 7, 12, and 14. Police said a suspect wearing a black mask fired into the courtyard where a family event, then ran.
The Gun Violence Archive counts a mass shooting as four or more people shot, injured or killed, not including the shooter. It is not only counting the days when everyone died. It is counting the scale of the violence. A CNN analysis found that July 4 and July 5 have seen more mass shootings than any other calendar days since 2014.
The streets of the capital held two very different visions of America that day.
Down one street, hundreds marched against Trump, chanting “Free DC!” Women’s March had listed a Free America Weekend of Action, including a Veterans Against Fascism turnout in Philadelphia. This country belongs to We the People.
Down another street hundreds of masked members of the white nationalist group called “Patriot-Front” moved through Washington carrying Confederate flags and chanting “Reclaim America.” The group claimed around 400 (Look at that “diversity”… eyeroll):
So here is the question the Fourth put on the table, in the open, in daylight:
Who gets to claim this country? The people who want it to belong to everyone, or the ones who cover their faces and try to take it back for a few?
If you have time, check out this video from the Veterans March on Philly for ‘Freedom Over Fascism’ that took place:
Imagine the Fourth of July that we continue to fight for
A block party where nobody checks the sky for toxic smoke with hazardous particles, a cookout where we don’t have to worry about someone being shot, a country that spends its birthday arguing about barbecue instead of what this administration has thrown at us.
The next day of action is July 17 to 19:
Good Trouble Lives On, honoring John Lewis.
If you’re organizing: post your event where people can find it and plan for the heat. Water & shade.
If you’re attending: find the action nearest you at the Good Trouble website, be sure to bring some water.
If you can’t be there: you are still in this. Share the event in group chats and talk about it with whoever you can!
Check out our Linktree for upcoming Trainings and Live Sessions:
I wanted to be kind to my neighbor. I went to Canada for the day!
I watched the NYC fireworks show and then watched the DC fireworks show (both on tv). Thought the NYC show was awesome and the DC show was meh. The NYC show was well thought out and a beautiful choreography. DC didn’t seem to have any choreography just lots of the same type of fireworks blasting over and over.