Ahead of Independence Day, the City of Orlando sent an email blast about plans for July Fourth celebrations, but their delivery was...a little off, drawing blowback from residents and outcry from Americans sick of liberals making America out to be some pariah unworthy of celebrating.
In its July 1 message (archived here), Orlando's "City News" bulletin stated:
A lot of people probably don’t want to celebrate our nation right now, and we can’t blame them. When there is so much division, hate and unrest, why on earth would you want to have a party celebrating any of it?
Yes, really. Why would anyone celebrate the Fourth of July or America? That's the position of the City of Orlando. Apparently leaders don't think veterans, law enforcement officers, or patriotic Americans live in their city? Or if they do, Orlando just thinks they are celebrating unnecessarily.
Showing how little self-awareness it could display, the same city email bashing America included a section saying "welcome aboard!" to its 13 new police recruits, a class in which more than half have military experience. So, welcome to Orlando, but we don't see any reason to celebrate the country you fought for and protected. Big yikes.
The email continued:
But in all seriousness, you know in your heart, Fourth of July fireworks are amazing, especially when you are standing in 90° heat, 100% humidity, next to 100,000 of your closest friends. In that moment, something takes over and we all become united in an inexplicable bond. Yes, America is in strife right now, but you know what...we already bought the fireworks. ?????
So, it's not worth celebrating America, but we have fireworks so we're going to party anyway...and just pretend it's not Independence Day? Predictably, the reaction was brutal.
Yikes. City of Orlando, is this your official position on our country and on 4th of July? @citybeautiful pic.twitter.com/DJBfaJBGxC
— Christina Pushaw ?? ???? (@ChristinaPushaw) July 3, 2022
And, apparently, the reaction to Orlando's email saying that they're not celebrating America but merely using the fireworks they'd already bought was not what the city expected, because they eventually followed up their email with a sheepish message:
The City of Orlando sincerely regrets the negative impact our words have had on some in our community. We understand these words offended some of our residents, which was not our intent. We value the freedoms we have in this country and are thankful to the men and women who have fought and continue to fight for those. We take pride in celebrating the 4th of July to express our gratitude to those men and women and honor the country we live in.
Oh, here we go. The City of Orlando apologizes if you were offended by their attack on 4th of July. This is what happens when you elect Democrats, you guys… they do not have the same view of America as we do. https://t.co/dwIgUoZrKZ
— Christina Pushaw ?? ???? (@ChristinaPushaw) July 3, 2022
But that's Democrats for you. It's no secret polling shows them to be less patriotic than their Republican counterparts, but this is a whole new level of anti-American exceptionalism that denied there's reason to celebrate anything.
Notably, the follow-up statement doesn't say sorry or offer an apology for portraying the United States as a nation that isn't to be celebrated — merely that Orlando "regrets" the "negative impact" of their stated sentiment that there's no reason to "have a party celebrating any of [America]."
But the apology, then, was criticized by Democrats who found no issue with the email from the City of Orlando nor the tone of their America-bashing message:
Democrat elected official shares negative sentiments about 4th of July, does not think that the City of Orlando should have issued even a tepid apology to those who love America and were offended. pic.twitter.com/V1sRliTjkY
— Christina Pushaw ?? ???? (@ChristinaPushaw) July 3, 2022
The City of Orlando said exactly what it meant, and just ignored the possibility that people might find trashing America on her birthday to be in poor taste. It's especially ironic because, yet again, some America-hating bureaucrat used the freedom America affords to attack the U.S., both taking for granted and taking advantage of the freedoms we have.