Happy (?) Fourth

 This morning I pedaled out to City Island on Tosca, my Mercian fixie.  Although humid, the air pleasantly balanced early summer with early morning: just enough warmth with just enough briskness.

We had our Pride festivities, and the end of Pride Month, on Sunday.  Still, I was surprised, as I have been during my most recent rides to the Island, at how many rainbow flags I saw draped from window sills and door frames, fluttering ever so lightly in the sea breeze.

Riding back along the Pelham Parkway path, I had a terrifying thought:  This might be the last Fourth of July I see those flags—or that the Stars and Stripes has any meaning, if it still does.

When people wished me “Happy Fourth,” I felt almost sick—and not because it’s my birthday and I’m another year older.  Rather, I am scared because of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday.  It says that the President cannot be held criminally accountable for “official” acts while in office.

Photo by Craig Hudson for the Washington Post 

So what constitutes an “official” act? Is it anything the President says it is? 

Some—including Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent—have pointed out that Trump, if elected, could actually carry out his boast/threat to send Navy Seal Team 6 to assassinate his political rivals. He could, therefore, foment violence that would make January 6, 2021 look like a summer fair.

I have two very personal reasons to fear Trump becoming, in essence, Louis XIV. During his reign, haters of all kinds were emboldened to carry out their hatred on anyone they see as a “threat,” including transgender people. The violence has continued and probably intensify as Trump and his allies repeal laws and policies that aim to bring about equality—and pass new legislation to make life more difficult, even impossible, for us.

Oh, and don’t forget that he hates bicycles and cyclists. Would he target us directly or use fossil fuel companies by giving them tax breaks and allowing “eminent domain” so they could tear up bike lanes and other infrastructure to, say, build more pipelines?

I hope that I won’t have to feel so anxious next Fourth. In other words, I am hoping this country is still the country I was taught to believe it is—if indeed it still is, or ever was, that country.