Growing up, rising third-year Amanda Rosenthal’s New Jersey hometown emphasized community every Fourth of July. Friends and family gathered for a neighborhood barbecue, then walked down the street to a grassy area near the town church. People from the surrounding area congregated to enjoy the local fireworks show.
The day was always fun, lighthearted and truly encapsulated summer, Rosenthal said.
But this year, the Fourth of July feels different to her. As the nation celebrates 249 years of independence, there is an undercurrent of mixed emotions across the country amid heightened tensions in a divisive political climate.
“I think the way that I’ve thought about Fourth of July has changed a lot in the past few years, not just in the past few months,” said Rosenthal, a business administration and psychology combined major. “I think it’s a very well-known fact that the government represents the country that it governs, and not agreeing with what our highest form of government is doing makes it really hard to then support the country as a whole.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has implemented sweeping policy changes that have marked a dramatic shift in modern American governance. Among the most notable are a mass deportation agenda, cuts to government programs and widespread firings of federal workers, some of which have been challenged in court.
The most recent proposal— what Trump calls his “Big, Beautiful Bill” — threatens to strip thousands of Americans of Medicaid, a government health insurance program, as well as access to food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It is also set to increase the budget for homeland security and continued construction of a border wall between Mexico and the U.S. Trump signed the bill into law July 4 after it was passed by Congress July 3.
To achieve America’s “largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump invoked on March 15 the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officials to deport people accused of being associated with Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, without a judicial review in court. The move has sparked legal battles across the nation, accusing the administration of denying due process to immigrants.
“I’m starting to develop an interesting relationship with America where I’ve sort of ‘seen the light’ for what it’s supposed to be about,” said Evan Vassilakis, a rising fourth-year health science and psychology combined major. “And it happens for people during massive social movements where their eyes are kind of opened to what America truly is about.”
Vassilakis, who is from central Massachusetts, has found himself reflecting on his rights as an American citizen more since the beginning of Trump’s presidency.
“I’ve never had to question my constitutional rights until this moment,” Vassilakis said. “It’s an interesting reckoning that I’ve had, because I’ve always been a very politically engaged person, but I’ve never seen politics as more than a spectator sport up until this moment.”
Vassilakis and Rosenthal attended the “No Kings but Yes Queens Day” protest in Boston June 14, which combined the city’s annual pride parade with an anti-Trump protest. The “No Kings Day” demonstration took place nationwide in response to a military parade planned in celebration of President Trump’s 79th birthday and the Army’s 250th anniversary.
“I am really proud that I live in a city like Boston where people can be open about their opinions and their beliefs,” Rosenthal said. “I think across the entire nation, the ‘No Kings Day’ parades had a big public and visual impact.”
Vassilakis noted the “joyous” atmosphere that emanated from the massive crowd that congregated for the protest.
For student Jack Magee, a rising second-year mechanical engineering major from the suburbs of Boston, it’s important to continue his annual traditions with his family to commemorate those who have served.
Magee typically spends the Fourth with his extended family in Connecticut, setting off fireworks in the backyard, having a big cookout and enjoying each other’s company.
“They’ve always made it a point to take a second and appreciate what you have versus what other people in the world don’t always have, like the ideals of freedom, service and sacrifice,” Magee said. “It was always important to us as a family to be appreciative.”
Magee is an active participant in Northeastern’s Reserve Officers Training Corps program. He plans to join the Army Reserve or National Guard after college.
“It makes me sad that so many people [have] hatred towards others and that people can’t all live in peace,” he said of Trump’s policy changes and the nationwide protests in response.
Vassilakis is most concerned about the consequences the Trump administration’s healthcare and research policies will have on the nation. He said the time is “now or never” to join advocacy organizations and attend protests to speak up about the impact of the president’s actions on Americans.
“I think that going into the Fourth of July, you think about what it represents as Independence Day,” he said. “We stood up to a tyrant. This is something you’ll hear from progressives a lot recently on the Fourth of July. But it represents the United States and the colonies standing up against the tyrant. And we’re doing the same thing now, domestically.”
The American flag, which will fly high on poles outside of public buildings, be displayed outside people’s houses and worn by many Americans on the holiday, has recently taken on greater meaning than just being a piece of decoration.
For Magee, it’s a reminder of his patriotism and appreciation for being an American.
“I’d say the first thing that comes to my mind is patriotism, and then it makes me feel very prideful,” Magee said. “And again, how lucky we are to live in this country.”
For Rosenthal, politics have been woven into the seams of the American flag.
“Something that I noticed, probably since Trump’s first term, was that it feels like conservatives and Trump supporters are using the American flag as a Republican symbol,” Rosenthal said. “It makes me hesitant to do things like wear the American flag on a shirt because it feels like Trump supporters and Republicans have been using that flag in their messaging.”
Rosenthal’s reluctance to embrace the American flag as a symbol has left her questioning her family’s relationship with patriotism.
“It sort of saddens me that that is my first reaction, because I’ve had conversations with my grandfathers who were veterans and were very proud Americans. My parents will talk about 9/11 and how proud they are to be American,” she said. “And the idea that young people such as myself are sort of disassociating from patriotism and from American-ness and from America, I think, is also very sad to them.”
Vassilakis has also noticed an increasing association of the American fag with conservatism, but he has embodied an alternative lens.
“It’s ours. It’s everyone’s, even including undocumented people,” he said. “It is supposed to represent opportunity, and it’s supposed to represent resistance in my eyes. And that’s kind of how I see it.”
