Tiffany

advocate for kids, Pearl Jam fan, Iowa transplant from Oregon. She/Her

[SnoopyVibes @SnoopyVibep4]

He didn't win the cup. He won our respect. 🇳🇴

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

When I heard about Senator Graham’s death last night, the first thing I thought about was not all the things he said and did in service of Donald Trump. I thought of the time before Donald Trump when he was a brother to Senator John McCain.

A time when senators from different parties could fight about politics and still be friends. A time when a conservative Republican from South Carolina could say of my father: “If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met in politics. As good a man as God ever created.”

That is the Senator Graham I will remember today. Not because I have forgotten what came after. Because in that memory there is hope. Hope for a country where brothers can fight like hell over policy and still share a meal, and a laugh, and the loss of the people they love.

I will choose to remember the time before Trump. Because I believe in an America after Trump.

[Savannah Bananas @TheSavBananas]

877-CASH-NOOOOOOOOOOW🗣️

(call now)

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

The kids from Sandy Hook should be in college right now.

[Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 @cmclymer]

For the first half of my kindergarten year, my family lived in a shitty little apartment complex somewhere in Central Texas.

I forget where. I think Waco? Copperas Cove? We moved around a lot. If memory serves correctly, I attended three different schools that year.

The apartment complex was right off I-35. We’d fall asleep at night to the muffled rumble of 18-wheelers passing by. The building itself was dingy and sparsely lit. The walls were thin, which meant we’d hear our neighbors’ business, and they definitely heard ours.

The best thing about the property was a flagpole in the middle of the parking lot. It shot up out of a small, circular, grassy island. The metallic shaft was immaculate—shiny and nary a scratch—and the tiny greensward beneath it was surprisingly lush.

I’m not sure when and where I saw it first—probably during that last pre-kindergarten summer during a Nick-at-Nite marathon, episodes of “Hogan’s Heroes” maybe—but at some point, I saw a flag-raising ceremony on television, and it left a big impression.

I don’t remember anything about my first day of school, but I vividly recall the first time I walked outside to wait for the bus and saw Mr. Ramirez go through the process of unfolding the American flag, fastening its eyelets to the snap hooks of the halyard and then calmly raising it to the top of the pole.

I didn’t know a lot about Mr. Ramirez, and I never did find out much about him. He was probably the property manager or handyman. I’d see him around the complex with his tools, and he always had a smile and a brief, kind word for me — “Hey, kiddo” or something like that.

One morning, during that first month of kindergarten, I walked out to wait for the bus and saw Mr. Ramirez getting ready to hoist the flag. Having now seen this many times on television and now seeing it a few times in-person, I did what my growing brain thought was appropriate: I rendered a salute, my little hand popping up to just above my brow.

He had begun raising the flag when he noticed me standing there—my paw held steady in respect—and cracked the biggest smile and chuckled. You haven’t seen a happier property manager than in that moment. He finished hoisting the flag, secured the halyard, stood at attention, and joined me in saluting it himself.

For the five months or so I lived there, that became our ritual every school morning, even on some weekends. I’d come outside, Mr. Ramirez would show up with the flag, and we’d do our thing. I don’t think I grasped it at the time, but in retrospect, he got a huge kick out of this. He loved it. I did, too.

A few weeks into this, my mother and I ran into him one afternoon, and he mentioned it to her.

“Your kiddo loves saluting the flag.”

She had no idea what he was talking about. He explained what we did every morning, and she still seemed confused. My mother didn’t give much care to these things. Hers was not the life of respect and discipline. Quite the opposite. It’d have been a rare moment for her to ask if I’d done my homework or bathed.

But Mr. Ramirez did care. On several mornings when I was running a few minutes late, he wouldn’t start without me. I’d dash outside to find him waiting, flag properly fastened, an easy smile to greet me.

“Ready?”

I’d nod, and up the flag went, my salute coming up and then his and the halyard was properly secured and we’d both go about our day.

We never talked outside of this ritual. Mr. Ramirez didn’t know my mother that well, and he probably thought it inappropriate to chat with me beyond our daily ceremony.

Yet even just the fact that a grown adult showed this kind of care meant a lot to me at the time in a way I wouldn’t fully appreciate until much later in life.

With all the trouble at home, all the chaos and uncertainty, all the abuse—things which would take many years to process and contextualize—I knew that every morning, Mr. Ramirez would be there waiting for me.

I’ve thought about him periodically throughout my life — when I was on flag detail during basic training and during NCO school and most times when I see the flag being carried up away from the earth, all those mornings with Mr. Ramirez will briefly revisit me.

It’s very easy to be cynical these days, and it’s especially easy to be cynical about our country. It’s understandable. Every sunrise in America right now brings fresh anxieties about our future. There’s a lot to keep us afraid and tempted into fatalism.

I’m not about to tell y’all that everything is gonna be fine. That would be a lie. We’re in for a lot of pain for the foreseeable future.

And thus, y’all may have complicated feelings about today, and I get that.

Our country is in a rough moment. Perhaps one of the roughest moments.

I’m celebrating today because I love this country. I don’t need pageantry and flags and mythology to love my country. I love my country on its own merits.

I love America because there are people I’ll never meet in our country who would bend over backwards to care for me, advocate for me, fight for me.

And I for them.

Teachers. Nurses. Physicians. Social workers. Soldiers. Sanitation workers. DMV clerks. Public interest attorneys. And on and on and on.

Property managers at dingy apartment complexes in Central Texas who take the time to build an early ritual of pride and community with a kid they don’t know.

You don’t need a parade or fireworks or overwrought language to feel proud to be an American.

Trump can never steal that from us. It is a choice we all make.

We can wake up every day and be grateful for the America that exists and the America we want.

It’s not about exceptionalism. It’s about pride. It’s about grit. It’s about faith in each other. It’s about community.

Don’t let that narcissistic clown take that away from you.

Patriotism is a choice. Believing in our potential is a choice. Believing we can be better and inspire each other to do better is a choice.

Refusing to give up on progress is a choice.

But the only way we’re going to get through this painful era is remembering that the best moments in our country are when we look out for each other. It’s when we build community. It’s when we don’t leave others behind.

In the only way he could, Mr. Ramirez showed up for me every morning, reminding me that there were adults who cared about me.

I’m thinking about him today. I hope he’d be proud of me. I hope my sense of citizenship has lived up to his.

Happy Fourth.

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Link to full essay available here for easier sharing: https://t.co/FKUJNjtsTo

[FOX Sports @FOXSports]

“Cape Verde. Thank you, on behalf of the world. You made us dream and watch your dreams lived out in real time. We’ll never forget you.” - @stuholden

People will never forget this run by Cape Verde 🇨🇻

[Mark Woodley @MarkWoodleyTV]

He wins in Rocky II. Cape Verde 2030 World Cup champs!

[Tancredi Palmeri @tancredipalmeri]

When you are interviewing a Cabo Verde fan outside stadium about gk Vozinha’s ability, and it turns out it is the dad of Vozinha

[World Cup 2026 @ofootball__]

Thank You VOZINHA 🫡

[NASA @NASA]

Happy 250th, America! 🇺🇸

Red (Mars), white (Moon), and blue (Earth) brought to you by the solar system.

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

The second birthright citizenship was upheld, MAGA started talking about:

Sterilization requirements for women.
Visa denials for pregnant women.
ICE targeting pregnant women.

So when they tell you they’re pro-life and pro-women, it’s all bullshit.

[evan loves worf @esjesjesj]

Holy shit this is perfect

[Alex Cole @acnewsitics]

BREAKING: After SCOTUS ruling on banning transgender athletes, Riley Gains still came in 5th place.

[Gary Peterson 🇺🇸 @GaryPetersonUSA]

Can’t tell if this is about the Supreme Court or if Bud Light put out another ad.

[Rob Sand @RobSandIA]

I know you guys are from out of town like your candidate so I’ll fill you in: nearly all Iowa public schools use a private auditor and have since before my time- including Iowa City, Des Moines, and Cedar Rapids.

So there's nothing our office was responsible to "find.”

Also, the PIE Program efficiency award is completely unrelated to audits.

You probably know all this and don’t care. That’s on you. 🤷‍♂️

[Tiffany @TiffanyInClive]

@itsme_urstruly

[Gerry Samuels @GerrySamuels12]

Lots of Boomers seem to be remembering the summer of 1976 with rose tinted spectacles, & think that they ‘just got in with it’

Let’s have a look at what the newspapers of the day had to say in 1976….

🧵

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Just saying…

48 million Americans have a substance use problem.

8 out of 10 don’t get treatment.

The crisis isn’t addiction. It’s access.

[Noah Riffe @NoahRiffe]

You losers called the city you’re showing a burned down, empty, shithole.

You don’t get to claim ANY part of Seattle’s shine.

[Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg]

This week someone targeted my family for harm with a false report. We’re physically OK, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t harmed. I am beyond furious.

Whatever your politics, this is awful, wrong, and can never become normal. https://t.co/72wxaVLzVT