It feels disgusting celebrating this country but I DO like an explosion in the sky

Up front: if you don't wanna hear me ramble about the state of the U.S. and just want cool firework photos, I get it; scroll down! This is not meant as a dig at anyone who wants to be happy about the 4th of July OR a milestone like 250 years, but as a person of mixed chicano descent who has gone a whole life plagued by being told I'm somehow "less" than my white counterparts (when my mom's family had been in California before the Spaniards came to ruin everything) I'm one of those (apparently dangerous) people who didn't have a "The U.S. was great before Trump ruined it!!" mindset. I think it's important to be critical of the things that matter like the country I was born in, and that country does not get "better" by ignoring its problems, or "voting out the bad ones and voting in the good ones" when "the good ones" still do imperialism, still do racial and identity inequality, still do rampant capitalism, still uphold evangelical hegemony, etc etc etc. I mean, shit; obviously I'm…