Early on July 4th I was driving home from a friend's house. NPR had a story on about the town of George, Washington and how they celebrate the 4th by baking the world's largest cherry pie. This year's pie was said to measure 8 feet by 8 feet!
The story caught my attention because I had not been feeling particularly excited about celebrating freedom or democracy in the current climate. Every day there are multiple reports about how the freedoms of average Americans are being eroded. How the freedoms of anybody who does not fit the white christian nationalist stereotype of a US citizen are being snatched away. Literally. People are being kidnapped off the streets by masked weapon-bearing men, and taken to undisclosed locations, often shipped out of the country, sometimes to a holding center in a country with which they have no relationship. These techniques are all about creating fear in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". It is hard to be brave under these conditions, and this is clearly not an ideal time to celebrate independence - national or personal.
The story about George, Washington caught hold of my imagination because this strikes me as a good time to get creative in our responses to the atrocities being waged. Protests are good. I understand that we need at least 3.5% of the population to show up regularly in order to turn the tide of politics, and we are edging close to that. Conversations with people are also good. We need to keep talking about what is happening, trying to put it into some kind of historical context, and wrestle it away from those who purport to be following God's will. (No Way is this what is going on! The complete opposite, actually.) Showing up is vital also, to ensure that those who are being targeted by ICE and others are not left standing alone.
But sometimes the overwhelming tension of living under these conditions gets the better of me, and I simply cannot find it within myself to do anything. Baking a cherry pie was my small act of protest. I did not go to a parade. I did not attend a fireworks display. I did not host a barbeque for all of my friends and neighbors. (Although, that could have been nice.) What I did was go to the nearest orchard with my husband and spend an hour picking tart cherries. We brought our 18 pound haul back home where I washed, pitted and packaged up 16 pounds of them. Then, with the remaining 2 pounds I made a pie.
It was delicious. It was just what I needed. That pie reminded me of what is best about this country that I live in, this country that I love. It reminded me of the story about George Washington, (the one for whom that little town in Washington state is named), wherein the father of our country admits that he cannot lie. What a concept! I long for leaders who are honest, for leaders who have enough integrity to admit when they are wrong. I long for leaders who actually lead rather than using and abusing their authority to create chaos and fear, undermining the values that this country was built on.
