I chickened out.
Staying home and out of the rain isn’t really the American kind of thing to do, but yours truly is guilty of just that.
My son, Jackson, really wanted to go to D.C. for the 250th anniversary of the nation, and I planned to go, too, even though perfectly nice events were scheduled for the Fredericksburg area.
Age was a factor. As I wrote two weeks ago, I just turned 50. So though it’s likely that my only child will be around for the 300th birthday, I may not.
However, when the festivities were delayed Saturday — and the grounds evacuated — I was afraid everything might be canceled, which would have ruined a combined car-and-Metro trip into the big city.
Then, when it started raining at my place, I made the decision to watch the livestream of whatever reduced program would be held.
That’s not like me. As Larry David said in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” I usually stick to the end, even for bad movies or bad books. I’m also notorious in our newsroom for always wanting to be on the scene for public meetings, even if I can watch them online.
My caution was sort of rewarded, as well. By being at home, I saw an impromptu “God Bless America” on TV sung in a rain shelter by 103-year-old World War II veteran Army Cpl. Wilbur “Jack” Myers. It was really good, and even more interesting to me, a Baltimore Orioles fan, is that he is scheduled to sing soon at Camden Yards.
Jackson did brave first the heat and then the storm to attend the big shindig, though. He went to Washington with fellow Massaponax High School grads Austin Clayton and Aiden Hernandez, who now attend UVa and the University of California, San Diego, respectively.
The experience sounded messy-but-worthwhile when Jackson recounted it later.
The trio arrived about 6:30 p.m., and authorities were already evacuating people. So they retreated to the restaurant Jaleo by chef José Andrés (because Jackson knows more about D.C. dining than I do).
Then they got word that the 250 show gates would reopen at 9:45, so about 9:15 they headed back toward the National Mall.
A two-hour wait in line would follow, in which Jackson and his friends tried to listen to President Trump’s speech from afar, though my son said, “We could only make out like every other word.”
They arrived at the Washington Monument grounds basically just in time for the light show.
“The first fireworks went off as we were being screened,” Jackson said.
He liked the way the fireworks were paired with popular music, and I did, too, as I watched from home, though I would have liked to have seen the original artists perform at the event.
Anyhow, Jackson also said that, though the show was organized to have a record number of fireworks, it didn’t seem too long.
Getting home? That was another story.
Long lines awaited at the Metro, though Jackson passed the time by picking up a case of the complimentary water that was available and handing bottles out to fellow event-goers.
Then came what would be normal for any July Fourth in Washington: a packed Metro ride. Jackson’s train arrived in Springfield about 3 a.m., and he and his friends didn’t make it back to Spotsylvania County until about 4:30.
So my main question was: Was it all worth it?
“I would say it was worth it,” he said. “I’m glad that I went, and I witnessed this occasion.”
It was enough of an ordeal that he said he wouldn’t necessarily go next year if a similar event was held. But he said he probably would go to a tricentennial show in 50 years. That’s not surprising, because he’s a political and history junkie, not unlike his dad.
It also wasn’t surprising when I saw that Daniel Cortez attended Saturday.
The Stafford County resident wrote on Facebook that “[n]o amount of rain or blistering heat” could have kept him away.
Cortez has been a presidential appointee, and he wrote that, as a wounded Vietnam veteran and chairman of the National Vet Court Alliance Inc., he worked with the White House’s Brittany Baldwin and Thomas McIntosh to help coordinate the president’s honoring of Gold Star families Saturday.
“How proud to be part of history!” he wrote.
And I was glad to watch history online, though it meant I was taking the easy way out.
What makes me proud to be an American? A lot of things.
But the first to come to mind didn’t happen in 1776. It would have to wait until Dec. 15, 1791.
On that day, Virginia ratified the Bill of Rights, meaning that enough votes were in to make it law.
And that, of course, gave us the First Amendment, which has allowed me to have a career and, now, to pay for my offspring to go to college.
Let’s end with the official text:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
