I don’t have any patriotic clothing. I don’t own an American flag. And I’m hoping that the 4th of July parade in the small town where we are staying is rained out.

But last week at the ball game, I teared up at the Star Spangled Banner. It gets to me – even with all its militaristic excess. It’s that “land of the free and the home of the brave” that does me in.

I am ashamed of my country right now. Ashamed that institutions of governance – one after the other – fell prey to years’ long plots to disenfranchise the country’s majority. Ashamed that people doing normal things in a normal way can get caught up in an interaction with law enforcement that ends with their being riddled with bullets. Ashamed that adults charged with caring for the children of the world would icily tell a 10-year old…