Police said 19 people were also hospitalized after the shooting in Highland Park. The parade started around 10am but was abruptly halted 10 minutes later after gunshots were fired. Hundreds of marchers — some visibly covered in blood — left the parade route, leaving behind chairs, baby carriages and blankets. News of yet another mass shooting came as the nation struggled to find cause to celebrate its independence and the bonds that still hold it together. It was supposed to be a day to get work done, flock to parades, devour hot dogs and burgers at backyard barbecues, and gather under a canopy of stars and exploding fireworks. “The Fourth of July is a sacred day in our country — a time to celebrate the goodness of our nation, the only nation on Earth founded on one idea: that all men are created equal,” President Joe Biden wrote earlier Monday. Biden. . “Make no mistake, our best days are yet to come.” But filming in Highland Park left a chaotic, disjointed Fourth of July scene. Video taken by a Chicago Sun-Times reporter after the shots rang out shows a band on a float continuing to play as people run past them, screaming. Gina Troiani told The Associated Press that she rode her 5-year-old son’s bicycle, decorated with red and blue curved ribbons, through a neighborhood to avoid the parade route. At first, he thought the loud sounds were fireworks — until he heard people yelling for a shooter. These are precarious times: A recession is looming, and the Highland Park shooting will weigh on a national psyche already tainted by mass shootings like those recently seen at a Texas elementary school and a New York supermarket. Sharp social and political divisions have also been exposed by recent Supreme Court decisions overturning the constitutional right to abortion and striking down a New York law restricting who can carry a gun in public. “Independence Day doesn’t feel like much of a holiday when our basic rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are on the line,” New York Attorney General Tish James, a Democrat, tweeted. “Today, I encourage you to imagine what this nation could be if and when we live up to our values.” However, many had reason to gather and celebrate amid the easing of coronavirus precautions for the first time in three years. Baltimore, for the first time, is resuming its Independence Day celebrations after a two-year hiatus, to the delight of residents like Kirstan Monroe. “I’m glad to see downtown coming back together like it should be,” he told WBAL-TV. Colorful screens large and small were scheduled to light up the night sky in cities from New York to Seattle to Chicago and Dallas. However, others, particularly in drought- and wildfire-stricken areas of the West, will give up. Phoenix will once again go without fireworks — not because of pandemic or fire concerns, but because of supply chain issues. In emotional ceremonies across the country, some will take the oath of citizenship, giving them the right to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. During a ceremony for naturalized citizens held at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home in Virginia, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told 52 people from 42 different countries that they were essential to building a strong workforce. “Immigrants strengthen our workforce and, in the process, help strengthen the resilience and vitality of our economy,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for Monday’s event. For many, the Fourth of July was also an opportunity to put political differences aside and celebrate unity, reflecting on the revolution that led to the longest-lasting democracy in history. “There’s always something to divide us or to unite us,” says Eli Merritt, a political historian at Vanderbilt University whose forthcoming book chronicles the painful founding of the United States in 1776. But he sees the Jan. 6 hearings investigating last year’s invasion of the U.S. Capitol as a reason for hope, an opportunity to rally behind democratic institutions. While not all Americans or their elected representatives agree with the committee’s work, Merritt is encouraged that it is at least somewhat bipartisan with some Republicans on board. “Moral courage as a place for Americans to place hope, the willingness to stand up for what is right and true despite negative consequences to oneself,” he said. “This is an essential glue of constitutional democracy.”
Associated Press reporter Fatima Hussain contributed reporting from Washington.
