Welcome to the Agapecene
Apageseis (verb form of agape, noun): to show a conscious, chosen, and unconditional love, typically through active goodwill and self-sacrifice
-cene (affix): a division of geological time from the Greek kainos, new.
If you’re feeling conflicted about celebrating 250 years of the United States, you’re not alone. At least for me, for the last ten years of Fourths I’ve found it hard to muster civic pride.
The treatment of Dakota Access Pipeline protestors. White supremacists brandishing tiki torches and murdering counter protestors. White people defending the extrajudicial executions of Black people in the fucking streets. A majority of white people voting THREE times for the walking embodiment of moral rot. The Supreme Court and GOP-controlled states stealing reproductive justice away from the denizens of this country. Higher ed institutions punishing students for opposing the use of their tuition money to fund genocide. The US government declaring war on trans*people. The US government gutting foreign aid, scientific investment, and social services knowing the funding cuts would result in mass casualties. DHS (with the enthusiastic participation of local law enforcement) ripping our neighbors from our communities and imprisoning them in concentration camps. It's been a decade of finding a helluva lot to feel ashamed, horrified, and despondent about and very, very little to feel proud of.
And that was before the writers of this season of “America” decided that subtext was for cowards and leaned into the heavy-handed metaphors to really drive home the point that the only thing the Republican Party is good for is tearing shit down and enriching itself while doing it. Everything the administration touches, crumbles. Why? Because Kyriarchy is a fundamentally destructive philosophy. It is defined by domination, oppression, and submission; any idea, identity, or community that threatens the power structure must be destroyed.
It’s a bleak worldview and it’s one we’ve been resisting for a decade and have been forced to speed-run since January 20, 2026.
Despite all of the suffering, cruelty, and downright terror we are enduring, this weekend—this Fourth of July—I felt . . . a little patriotic. Just a trifle. A twinkle? Okay, a twinge, like the kind you might get when you move the wrong way after sitting for too long. It didn't feel great. It was also an unpleasant reminder that there's a muscle there I've forgotten about because it's been so damned long since I've put it through its paces.
To be clear, I don’t feel love for my government, but fuck if I’m not proud of the American people right now. Because the people who believe in the ideals the US has yet to live up to, they’re bringing the fight. We are bringing the fight.
Americans are in the streets, protecting their neighbors from being terrorized and kidnapped—often at incredible risk to themselves. Americans are doing grocery runs and providing breast milk to their neighbors who are in hiding. Americans are patrolling parks and corridors where ICE releases the wrongfully detained and leaves them to die from exposure. Americans are sacrificing their time and money and sometimes their very lives to practice love as a verb.
Americans in Mississippi marched to spotlight the deaths of people ICE has disappeared, while Americans outside Delaney Hall are fighting every day to rescue the people inside the concentration camp.
Meanwhile, sporting events are bringing people together all across the country. Knicks fans (not just in NYC!) gathered for watch parties in parks and on streets, where they met neighbors, sometimes for the first time, and came away with new friends. Communities across the country are hosting World Cup teams and events. Lawrence, KS welcomed Team Algeria with open arms to their home away from home. Boston, MA turned into Little Scotland for a week. In Koreatown in Los Angeles, CA, people of Mexican and Korean descent watched the Mexico-Korea match together and celebrated Mexico’s win after. And in a country where so many of us have ancestors who hailed from somewhere else, as the New York Times noted, “Every World Cup Team is a Home Team.”
American musicians with major platforms are speaking truth to power. Bad Bunny responded to the ugly nativism and xenophobia about his Super Bowl performance by offering a program that celebrated love—of romantic partners, family, community, culture, and self. He reminded us that we are all Americans, everyone in the Western Hemisphere, and we all have the right to liberty, liberation, and self-determination. Hayley Williams continues to spend her concerts calling out the forces of oppression while standing ten toes down for the Black and brown communities targeted by active and passive white supremacy and fascism.
American clergy have been rallying against the Trump administration and Pope Leo has put a decisive end to previous attempts by the Catholic Church to bring an order of professed anti-Semites, racists, and misogynists back into the fold—a move that signaled to similarly-inclined orders that they, too, will face excommunication if they don’t come correct.
Do yourself a favor, if you’ve yet to watch Zohran Mamdani’s July 4th address, check it out. It offers one of the most deft and accessible summations of what has always great about America and why we should be proud (even now) to be American. His thesis is very simple: it’s the people.
It’s We the People’s shared belief in a multiracial, multicultural democracy. It’s We the People’s conscious, chosen, and unconditional love for one another. It’s the actions that We the People, take every day to make the promises of the Constitution a reality. It’s the sacrifices that We the People make to strive to make every tomorrow better than every today.
It’s our agape.
Welcome to the Agapecene. We the People are only getting started.
