In Washington D.C, where an expected heat index of 110 degrees or higher forced the cancellation of Saturday’s National Independence Day Parade, semiquincentennial version, flags still flew and a march still went on.
The Patriot Front, a white nationalist, neo-fascist organization in favor of a white ethnostate, was not to be deterred in its repudiation of multiculturalism and diversity in the U.S. Hundreds of masked, outwardly malevolent, inwardly fearful men chanted about “reclaiming” America while holding aloft flags whose symbolism jibed — in a perverse sense — with the oppressive weather.
The Patriot Front’s display was just a small part of the Fourth of July, but it clashed wildly and pathetically with the blissful demonstrations we’ve been seeing in other leading cities — 11 of them in the U.S., along with the five combined in Canada and Mexico — throughout the three-plus-week-old FIFA World Cup.
Goodness, have our international visitors ever been showing us a good time while we’ve been showing them a good time.
Scotland’s supporters — the Tartan Army — brought bagpipes, kilts and extraordinary good cheer to Boston and Miami, where they sang, danced and drank copiously with locals and opposing fans alike. Norway’s supporters did the Viking Row absolutely everywhere — in the stands, on the streets, even on escalators — in and around New York and Boston. Dutch fans paraded in brilliant orange through Dallas, Houston and Kansas City, Mo.
Hinchas from Spain, wrapped in Spanish flags, made glorious ruckuses in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Argentines showed Kansas City what a proper banderazo looks like and later danced with Cape Verdeans in Miami after Lionel Messi and the defending champions were taken to the limit by a little-known tournament darling. Paraguay’s fans — “the Albirrojos” — charmed and wowed San Francisco with their passionate watch parties.
There was so much of this sort of thing, and it was everywhere. As were news segments and viral videos in which visitors, enthused to the point of giddiness, tried to wrap their brains around giant portions and free refills at restaurants, the inexplicable late-night magic of a Waffle House, the ubiquitousness of ranch dressing and — truly a staple of Americana — the mega gas station stocked with knickknacks galore and every salty or sweet treat imaginable.
And then there’s what many of our visitors have expressed along the way, some with varying degrees of surprise, about us: that they have felt welcomed and embraced.
If this World Cup has felt like a major success, all the expressions of joy and friendship must have something to do with it.
We’re not so different, all of us.
It’s a small world, after all.
Fittingly enough, the U.S. squad, which faces Belgium on Monday (7 p.m., Fox, Telemundo) in a Round of 16 game in Seattle, might as well be known as Team Small World. More than half the players on the roster own dual citizenship. The list includes Malik Tillman — he of the spectacular, curled-in free kick to crush Bosnia and Herzegovina’s hopes in the first knockout round — who was born and raised in Germany, as well as fellow standouts Sergino Dest (born and raised in the Netherlands), Antonee Robinson (England) and Weston McKennie (born in the U.S.). It’s a U.S. team of military brats, sons of naturalized citizens and birthright citizens.
One of those birthright citizens is the team’s top goal scorer, Folarin Balogun, who will be able to play against Belgium after his red-card ban was lifted by FIFA in a huge Sunday development. Folarin was born — on July 3, 2001, an Independence Day eve baby — to Nigerian parents who lived in London, but his mother was visiting her sister-in-law in New York and ended up giving birth in Brooklyn. Though he was in London from infancy on, he is a birthright citizen in accordance with the 14th Amendment.
Those swept up in the team’s success as it aims to advance to the quarterfinals of the first World Cup with a 48-nation field might want to give an “olé, olé!” in honor of a little something called the U.S. Constitution.
“With all our different backgrounds, where we have all grown up, it’s a true representation of what America is,” team captain Tim Ream, who is from St. Louis, told reporters in Seattle over the weekend. “It’s a melting pot of people, of personalities, of characters and, like I said, a perfect representation of what the U.S. is and what it’s about.”
U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino — who describes himself as “200%” Argentinian — fits the theme as well as anyone despite not being American at all. One glimpse of him belting out “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” which has become the team’s anthem, makes that abundantly clear.
On his birthday, Balogun, expecting to be suspended for the Belgium game, told reporters, “I feel the love from the country as a whole, so that makes it easier for me to move forward.”
Anyone would feel the same way.