Ten years ago today, we celebrated our first 4th of July in Kentucky.
We were brand new here and had gotten a pontoon, even though our neighbors — we were always getting together in big and small groups for meals, cocktails, swimming, even breakfast — told us not to bother getting a boat. “Just sit on your dock and look sad,” they said. “Somebody will stop and pick you up!”
We got a boat anyway because we did not want to seem like freeloaders. We wanted to be part of the place, to blend in, to be like everyone else.
On that first 4th of July, a childhood friend and her husband drove over from Southeast Missouri with their dog. We kept one eye on local news for pop-up thunderstorms; swam and ate hot dogs with soggy chips; tied up with neighbors’ boats and played music; went out after dark to see fireworks.
I remember feeling lost and fearful as we made our way home that night from the fireworks. We did not know the lake at all, it was foggy and black-dark, and having not grown up on boats or around water, I felt scared and responsible for everyone’s safety.
It was July 2015. Steve Beshear was Governor. Barack Obama was president. The guy from Celebrity Apprentice had come down an escalator to say he was running for president, but he was a joke and nobody cared. We were busy living. We shot off our fireworks, swam and drank beer with the neighbors, ate our hot dogs, flipped the bird for a funny picture to send to old friends.
Last night, on 4th of July eve, at a rally in Iowa to celebrate his Big Beautiful Bill, the Celebrity Apprentice guy who is somehow still the president said about Democrats, “… they hate Trump, but I hate them too, you know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them because I really do believe they hate our country if you want to know the truth.”
And the crowd cheered.
It is the 4th of July 2025. The lake has gone quiet. We sold the boat. People keep to themselves. We no longer know each other at all.
In the end, his legacy will not be a Big Beautiful Bill.
His legacy will be the magnitude of what he destroyed.
His legacy will be what it feels like to be adrift on an unfamiliar lake in the fog and the dark, feeling unsafe, trying to find our way home.
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