As We Approach July 4th: What Are We Really Celebrating?

By Jerry Elman, July 3, 2025

As We Approach July 4th: A Dark Reflection on America

As we approach July 4th, nothing could send a worse message about America — and about what the Revolutionary War was truly fought for — than the proud laughter surrounding the opening of Alligator Alcatraz.

To be proud of cruelty, to joke about snakes and alligators serving as prison guards, violates every foundational American value. These prisoners will never be heard from again. They may be killed, tortured, forced into slave labor, or quietly deported. We will never truly know.

They will never be given due process — the very principle our founders fought to establish, the very principle meant to protect lives and freedom above all else.

And at the same time, people laugh across America. They celebrate this cruelty as if it were a sport. Life is great for white Evangelical Americans today — their lives and freedom are not at risk. Even other Christians are now viewed as enemies by this group.

They are just like the German equivalent of the 1930s: those who called themselves Aryans, the self-declared “perfect human race.”

Today, this dark ideal has mutated into a new standard: a combination of race and religious belief that the extreme fringes now call “the perfect human.” It is a dangerous and violent fantasy, disguised as patriotism and faith.

Yes, illegal immigrants need to be dealt with. But they must be dealt with as humans — not with cruelty and evil. The measure of a society is not how it treats its strongest and safest, but how it treats its most vulnerable.

The real character of people is always revealed when they hold power over others. Wearing a cross necklace does not make anyone just or moral. Many wear it thinking it masks their true selves, but history always unmasks us in the end.

The German Parallel We Dare Not Ignore

Germany did not start with killing.

In 1933, they started by putting political opponents and some Jews into camps. There was laughter then, too.

In 1935, they passed the Nuremberg Laws, stripping Jews of all rights and property.

In 1938 came Kristallnacht — violent pogroms, mass arrests, and the beginning of forced labor and Jewish camps.

In 1939, the death camps appeared. Then world war.

It all started with cruelty and laughter. And because the masses did not care, each step went further, and further, until there was no return.

Today, we see the same pattern: cruelty celebrated, leaders laughing, and crowds — especially among white Christian evangelical America — cheering along without shame. And they claim its not the same as Germany! BULLSHIT!

A Reflection from My Family’s Shadows

My parents were Holocaust survivors. I grew up with their silence and their scars. They didn’t just fear death — they feared a world that could be manipulated into applauding cruelty, where neighbors vanished, and dignity was stripped away piece by piece.

If they saw Alligator Alcatraz today, they would recognize the echoes immediately. The jokes, the justifications, the crowds delighting in suffering. They would ask: How can you not see where this road leads?

History is not just a lesson in a book. It is a warning siren.

The Moment of Choice

As we raise flags and celebrate freedom this July 4th, we must ask ourselves: freedom for whom? Dignity for whom?

The line has been crossed. We can no longer pretend we don’t see it.

The question now is: What will we do? Will we stand silent and watch, or will we finally act?

A Final Plea

Speak out. Share this message. Support organizations defending human dignity. Challenge cruelty — no matter who it targets.

Silence does not make you safe. It only makes you complicit. And at some point they will come for you also! Just like the 1930’s. It is exactly the same.