There’s something deeply wrong when the people planning America’s birthday party can’t quite bring themselves to mention America.
San Diego County’s Democratic-led Board of Supervisors is catching heat after internal emails revealed their vision for an America 250 Fourth of July celebration. What started as a tribute to the Declaration of Independence morphed into something else entirely. The planned event features a tribal blessing, a land acknowledgment, and nearly two hours of programming centered on “historically underserved populations.” You know what’s conspicuously absent? Any meaningful focus on the founding of the greatest nation in human history.
Bill Wells, mayor of El Cajon, put it plainly when he posted his alternative plan on X. “Acknowledge America and its greatness. Celebrate with fireworks and the American National Anthem.” Revolutionary stuff, right? Apparently in 2025, suggesting that the Fourth of July should actually celebrate America counts as a bold stance.
The event’s planning documents tell you everything you need to know about where priorities lie. Internal county emails and board materials obtained by Digital show that potential sponsors were required to attest to a series of DEI principles as a condition of participating. Not surprisingly, at least one sponsor walked away. When you demand ideological loyalty oaths before someone can help fund fireworks, you’ve lost the plot entirely.
This isn’t just bureaucratic overreach. It’s cultural vandalism dressed up in the language of inclusion. The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife. These officials are using diversity and equity rhetoric to exclude the very story that made American diversity possible in the first place. The Declaration of Independence didn’t just announce a new country. It introduced a radical idea that changed the world forever: that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights.
That document wasn’t perfect in its execution, sure. But its principles provided the moral framework that eventually led to the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement. Every expansion of liberty in American history traces back to those founding ideals. To sideline that story on Independence Day isn’t progressive. It’s historical malpractice.
Meanwhile, up in Seward, Nebraska, they’ve been doing this right for decades. Clark Kolterman, known as “Mr. Fourth of July,” has helped maintain Seward’s tradition as the official “Fourth of July City.” No struggle sessions about who deserves to be celebrated. No mandatory land acknowledgments before the fireworks. Just straightforward American pride and community celebration.
The contrast couldn’t be sharper. While Seward embraces what makes the Fourth special, San Diego County officials seem embarrassed by it. They’re so worried about offending someone that they’ve ended up offending the very concept of national celebration. And honestly, when did patriotism become controversial at a patriotic holiday?
The funding problems plaguing the San Diego event aren’t surprising either. When you strip away what makes something meaningful and replace it with bureaucratic virtue signaling, people lose interest. Sponsors don’t want to jump through ideological hoops. Attendees don’t want lectures about historical grievances when they came for hot dogs and fireworks.
This matters beyond one county’s mismanaged celebration. It reflects a broader discomfort among certain political circles with unapologetic American pride. They’ll acknowledge America’s flaws endlessly but struggle to articulate why this country remains a beacon of hope for millions worldwide. They’ll spend hours highlighting every failure but can’t spare five minutes to celebrate our successes.
The Fourth of July isn’t complicated. It’s a day to remember that a group of imperfect men risked everything to create something unprecedented. A nation built not on shared ancestry or religion but on shared ideals. Limited government. Individual liberty. The pursuit of happiness. These aren’t outdated concepts. They’re timeless principles that still inspire people everywhere.
San Diego County still has time to fix this mess. Drop the mandatory DEI attestations. Refocus the programming on America’s founding story. Let people celebrate their country without guilt or qualification. It’s not too much to ask that Independence Day actually be about independence.
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