It’s the Fourth of July. It’s still a pandemic. We’re entering the second month of Black Lives Matter protests. And it’s hard not to have some big, conflicting feelings, about it all:

Everywhere you look, you see America failing.

America is failing to protect its citizens from disease. Failing to protect them from racism. Failing to protect them from an increasingly militarized police. Failing to protect the enlisted amongst them from a hostile nation that has tried every way it can to destabilize our government, our economy, our society.

This one originally went out in Puppies & Politics, but I posted it on Medium, too. If you aren’t a P&P subscriber (why aren’t you a P&P subscriber?) click here. Read the full essay in the archive on the subscription page, or click here to view it on Medium.