This week, we saw two distinct visions of what it means to honor and celebrate the United States.
The first is the one you know, the Ultimate Fighting Championship spectacle in Washington, where President Trump presided over pyrotechnics, blood sport and general mayhem. Ostensibly planned to mark the 250th anniversary of the nation — which, as we all know, was founded by a cadre of mixed martial artists and podcasters — it was in reality a birthday celebration for a president who sees himself as the embodiment of the nation or who, at least, is unable to step out of the spotlight for even a moment.
Billed as though it was for the American people as a whole, the U.F.C. event was not, in truth, for the public; it was for Trump and his most dedicated supporters. With its aggressive machismo and shock-jock sensibility, it was designed to exclude all but the MAGA faithful — and even then, only those who subscribed to Paramount+.
The opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago was not technically an event to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And yet it had the tone and tenor of a more traditional celebration. There were popular celebrity musicians — Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Bruce Springsteen and the Roots, among others — to perform for the crowds. And our living ex-presidents — George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden — sat in attendance as Barack Obama introduced the center and offered a few words of reflection.
“The exhibits here focus not just on policies, but on the shared values that make democracy possible,” Obama said. “A belief in the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people, and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection. A belief in checks and balances in our government and an accountability that comes with it, an independent judiciary and a robust free press.” And a belief, he continued, “that qualities of character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty and honor, those things matter in our public dealings, just as they do in our private lives.” These values, Obama concluded, are “our greatest inheritance.”
Source:
www.nytimes.com
