Ahead of the country’s 250th birthday, The Smoky Mountain News traveled to cities and towns in our coverage area to interview folks on the street about their thoughts on the nation’s semiquincentennial, Fourth of July traditions and patriotism. The following interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
Joseph Tang
A local dad, playing with his daughter at the playground in Bridge Park in Sylva.
Smoky Mountain News: How do you feel about the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday?
Tang: It’s really cool to think that a country like this has lasted as long as it has. It’s the oldest democracy in the world, or something like that, so it’s quite an achievement. I hope it can last. There’s a lot of things that are dividing the country now, and there’s also problems from within, problems from without. So, let’s see how it goes.
SMN: What are your favorite Fourth of July Traditions?
Tang: We usually have a barbecue family get-together. We like to see the fireworks when we can go out to the parades. Ever since [my daughter] was born, it’s become a little different.
Xyla and Harmony Seagle
Local sisters sitting on a bench in downtown Sylva. Xyla (pictured on the left) recently graduated from high school and will be attending Southwest Community College in the Fall. Harmony (pictured on the right) works at Food Lion.
SMN: How do you feel about the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday?
Harmony: Honestly, I don’t think about it very much. For the Fourth of July, I always just think about fireworks.
SMN: What are your favorite Fourth of July traditions?
Harmony: Fireworks. Cookout.
Xyla: Usually, it’s just a family get-together with family that we don’t see often. Sometimes we’ll go out, see fireworks. Sometimes we’ll get our own fireworks. I think [250 years], it’s just been such a long time. People don’t realize the significance of it because it just seems like a day of celebration; no one really thinks about why.
SMN: What does patriotism look like to you?
Harmony: I don’t think about it much. I guess it’s just being grateful and proud of where you come from and where you live and how far the nation has grown. It’d probably be easier to realize how important it is if you saw how things used to be in the past or see how it is in other countries.
Xyla: I’m really grateful. I don’t really live in fear like I know [people] in other places do, so I am grateful for that. But, you know, it’s kind of hard to have an opinion myself because there’s just so many factors of how we were made.
SMN: Where do you see this country in the next 250 years?
Xyla: I feel like the way it’s going with AI and technology, I think that’s not good for us, personally. I think we’re slowly getting less in touch with just being connected. I mean, you go into a fast-food restaurant, and now you don’t even have to talk to a person to order. If you talk, you go to a screen to order, and they’re slowly eliminating any kind of contact. I don’t know how to put it, but human beings need community to be successful, and I feel like it’s slowly destroying us. So I don’t know. I have no clue where we would be. Who knows?
Harmony: Social media and the Internet have made it a lot easier to say your opinion through a screen and not have anyone know who you really are, and it’s easier for people to disagree or just be against each other. As much as I feel like there’s always this negativity, I feel like there’s more positivity, and that we will, I hope, become more united and grounded into working together. Through social media, we get to see people’s points of view, and we have the freedom to share that kind of information.
Jacob Dorsey and Heather Larson
Larson and Dorsey are visiting Bryson City from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
SMN: How do you feel about the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday?
Jacob: It feels pretty good.
Heather: My youngest son is active-duty Marine Corps, so we’re pretty patriotic. We have lots of decor at home. Bryson City is a little patriotic as well, and we’re riding the train today and just doing cool American pastimes.
SMN: What are your favorite Fourth of July traditions?
Jacob: We watch fireworks.
Heather: That’s mine, too. We have a pretty large fireworks display in downtown [Spartanburg], so I’d like to see that, or stay at home, and the neighbors shoot them off a lot.
SMN: What does patriotism look like to you?
Jacob: Helping people and helping whoever needs to go somewhere.
Heather: Supporting our military, supporting our government, our leaders, showing pride, flying flags.
SMN: What are your hopes for the next 250 years for this country?
Jacob: This train will still be here.
Heather: I’m kind of hoping things somewhat stay the same. Yeah, how much better can it get, honestly? I hope that everybody can figure out how to get along. Even if there are differences, just get along.
Lonnie Jones and Rita Schaefer Jones
Enjoying a coffee in downtown Bryson City. The two just bought a home in the area.
SMN: How do you feel about the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday?
Lonnie: I think it’s absolutely awesome. I think it’s hilarious that the country is going in the way it’s going right now, when your mother and daddy and fathers and brothers all fought for the country to be free, and now look where it’s going. I’m against everything that’s going on, as far as the communists and all these towns and all the crime going on, but I thank God that we got Donald Trump for our president. I thank God the country is going to straighten out through his administration. Of course, somebody else might feel way different, but I have kin folks, and you had kin folks die for this country, so 250 years is a miracle. We are here, and so far, fairly free. Freedom is everything.
SMN: What does patriotism look like to you?
Lonnie: It means freedom. It means I can do and come and go as I please, and I love the country because our forefathers fought to make it free. And I’m a patriot because I want to be free. I want the world, and I want the country, to be free. I want to do what the country needs me to do. John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” and I feel this way. What can I do?
Rita: Loving your country, and it’s so sad when they burn the flags, and they tear things up, and people worked, and they tear things up, and that’s not patriotism; that’s not helping your people.
SMN: What are your hopes for the next 250 years for this country?
Lonnie: My hope is it’s going to continue to get better, but my fears are that in 10 years from now it’s not going to be. That’s what my fears are. They’ve always said that they’ll overtake us from within. We will be turned communist from within, and it’s starting. It’s been going on for a while, but now it’s really big time, and my fears are that we’re going to lose the country 10, 20 years down the line. But my hope is, of course, for it to be like we are standing here talking, sitting here having coffee. I’m afraid that won’t be here 20 years from now.
Rita: That the conservative people will stand up, the Christians will stand up to what’s happening, and if they don’t, we won’t be here.
Kevin Calloway
Standing outside the Franklin County Courthouse, like he does on most Thursdays, to protest what he calls the rise of fascism in the United States.
SMN: How do you feel about the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday?
Calloway: I think we’re in a very bad way. We are under a corrupt government at the moment. It’s one thing after another that’s coming down, that’s taking something away from the American people. We’re not helping the American people. We’re putting more people in poverty, we’re putting more people under the risk of losing a home if they have one, because they can’t afford medical bills if they have them. I recently had one last year, and 17 days in the hospital cost me a quarter of a million dollars. Most working people in this area can’t afford to get a flat tire. It’ll set you back, and you could possibly lose some things. So, I mean, these are the things that we need to take care of.
SMN: What prompted you to come out here today with your sign?
Calloway: I try and come out here roughly every Thursday. I missed the last two because I was out of town, but I’m tired of it. My government thinks that I’m a terrorist. My government doesn’t like what I’m doing and wants to throw me in jail for disagreeing with them or questioning them. That is not America. People are getting run over for doing what I’m doing. People are getting shot for doing what I’m doing, and I’m just making a stand. I don’t know that our elections are going to help us this time around. We’ve got too much money in our elections. We’re spending trillions on wars, and we’re losing the battle at home.
SMN: How long have you been coming out here?
Calloway: Off and on, three months coming out here, getting a lot of that good Christian love, getting my fair share of abuse. You know, people come by, and they flip me off. I don’t understand what they can argue with about this. They don’t want to have a discussion about the sign. They call me a racist, they call me a traitor, and I ask them what fascism is, and they can’t tell me. I said, “So you’re for fascism, correct?” And they can’t answer that. They just call me an idiot, or tell me that I’m gay, and I need to go home and get a job, or something like that.
SMN: What does patriotism look like to you?
Calloway: Just showing up, be a good neighbor, take care of your community, let your neighbor love who they want to love, be the person they want to be. If they want pink hair, let them have pink hair. It’s not hurting me. It doesn’t make me afraid of them. I think just be yourself and be unto to others. That’s patriotism. Performative flag wearing, waving, cross bearing, that’s not patriotism. That is the white sheet in broad daylight, as far as I’m concerned.
SMN: What are your hopes for the next 250 years for this country?
Calloway: I hope we get rid of this Epstein class, this billionaire class, these people who have all the money and are leaving us out to dry. We’re not going to have anything. They’re going to have their little bunkers. They need us. They’ve got to have us to build.
I hope we can learn that we’re all the same. We all got out of bed this morning at some point. We all want to have the best day we could possibly have in front of us, without crazy worries or anything like that. How am I going to get fed today? How am I going to get to work today because my car broke down and I don’t have enough gas? My hope for the next 250 years is that we get back to what they tell me America is supposed to be all along — a neighborly society where we’re good to each other. They keep telling me we’re supposed to be that. I think it’s time we get that.
Paige Lawson
Visiting Waynesville with her family from Charleston, South Carolina before she attends Camp Ton-A-Wandah in Flat Rock.
SMN: How do you feel about the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday?
Lawson: I’m really excited. I feel a lot of pride in my country. I’m proud to celebrate 250 years, even though I’ve only been here for 14. I’ll be at camp celebrating with all my friends.
SMN: What are your favorite Fourth of July traditions?
Lawson: At camp, we have different stations you can go to, and it’s like trivia, and you learn a lot. And then at the end, we have fireworks and bomb pops.
SMN: What does patriotism look like to you?
Lawson: Pride in your country.
SMN: What are your hopes for the next 250 years for this country?
Lawson: I hope that we can all come together and just fill the country with joy, because I think we need a lot of happiness right now.
Vijay and Martha Michael
Visiting Waynesville from Salisbury, North Carolina.
SMN: How do you feel about the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday?
Martha: It’s a wonderful milestone and time to remember the nation’s history.
Vijay: Me being the first-generation immigrant, it’s absolutely wonderful.
SMN: What are your favorite Fourth of July traditions?
Vijay: Eating a lot of food.
SMN: What does patriotism look like to you?
Vijay: I’m very conservative, so my patriotism is very different from [Martha’s]. To me, America is the greatest country in the world. I came here with nothing from India in 1969, and here I am.
Martha: I echo what he said about it being the greatest place to live, and I haven’t proved it yet, but I’ve gotten information that I could have had an ancestor on the Mayflower.
Vijay: She’s also a Daughter of the American Revolution.
Martha: The patriotism that I think about is different today than the old days, and I don’t like how the word is used and then portrayed.
Vijay: Patriotism seems like almost far-right white conservative, you know, Klan-type people. That’s not patriotism. It’s not Jan. 6.
SMN: So, what does it look like to you?
Vijay: Honoring the flag.
Martha: People come here. Why do they come here, giving up everything?
Vijay: They work so hard to get this thing going.
SMN: It’s very cool that, [Martha], your family goes back so far and yours, [Vijay], is just beginning here. That’s quite a melding.
Martha: Well, that’s just one side of my family. The other side, which no one will speak about, I don’t know anything about, but my grandfather, he was in the KKK.
Vijay: It’s all the different, the good, bad and ugly of the United States.
SMN: What are your hopes for the next 250 years for this country?
Martha: I hope it turns back around, and education, now it’s falling far behind. Other countries are far better ahead.
Vijay: And it’s okay to teach things that were wrong here in the United States; there’s no point in hiding. In the next 250 years, I hope we’re doing better than we’re doing now.
Martha: You know, 250 years ago, we wouldnt be sitting here together, married 56 years [as an interracial couple].
Cindy and Jim Atnip
Local couple, enjoying a sunny evening in downtown Waynesville.
SMN: How do you feel about the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday?
Jim: Very excited, very excited. I mean, we’re very patriotic. I really, really love what the Trump administration is doing to try to lift up the country by hosting events everywhere and really trying to bring patriotism to the forefront and all the things in our country’s history.
Cindy: Well, 250 is a landmark, obviously. In 1976, I watched the fireworks down in D.C., so to me, to see this far ahead, where we’re advanced, I mean, it’s incredible.
SMN: What are your favorite Fourth of July traditions?
Jim: Nothing in particular. We just enjoy watching fireworks and watching our grandkids play with sparklers.
Cindy: We’re going to try to come down to Main Street and watch the kids do the parade. When our daughter was growing up, we did the little Fourth of July parades in our neighborhood. They were awesome.
SMN: What does patriotism look like to you?
Jim: Patriotism to me is honoring the flag. Just honoring what our forefathers did, the sacrifices that they made, so that the country could thrive. Self-reliance. Just supporting our troops, supporting the military, supporting the police, you know, that type of stuff. Helping the neighbors.
Cindy: Just how remarkable our freedoms and our country are. I mean, it’s amazing. Yeah, we have issues, but I mean, the World Cup being here, and all the Europeans that came in, they’re like, “Wait a minute, we thought America was just full of grouchy people, and rude people and whatever.” No, that is not us.
Jim: Somebody had a real good comment, if you want to have a real bad outlook on America, listen to the news. If you want to love America, just get out and travel. Don’t listen to the news because, generally speaking, the truth of it is, in the mainstream media anyways, it’s disheartening to me how negative so many of them try to be. Just try to find the good.
Cindy: I think that, actually, patriotism is looking for all the good because there’s a ton around.
SMN: What are your hopes for the next 250 years for this country?
Jim: My main hope is that this country can continue to be a God-fearing, free democratic republic. That is what our forefathers founded and launched as a free nation. I hope that we can hold to that because there’s a lot of threats right now domestically. Some people that are not socialists, they’re communists, are starting to get a foothold and are getting louder and louder and louder. It’s not here yet, but you’ve got to keep an eye out. I wish they’d put God back into schools and such, because it seems to me, I mean, I’m 71 years old, and when they took God out of the public school system, I think there’s a direct correlation of some of the negative stuff in the downturns and things that have been accepted now.
Cindy: I’d say kind of the same thing. Because we’re downtown and it’s Pride, there’s a Pride parade evidently up here. Live your life; enjoy your freedoms in America. No one that I know of does not like you for who you love or whatever. So just enjoy, live your life, work hard, have a good time.
Jim: Don’t try to shove it on everybody. I wish we had a Veterans Month honoring veterans, rather than your sexual orientation for a month.
Cindy: Which no one really cares [about your sexual orientation]. At least in my world.