People gathered at Rotary Park in Durango bright and early Thursday morning under deep blue, cloudless skies for the Rotary Club of Durango’s All-American Gourmet Breakfast to start off Independence Day festivities.
Patrons enjoyed a meal of eggs, sausage, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, coffee and orange juice before a Freedom 5K Run, Stroll & Walk and the Southwest Civic Winds Patriotic Concert later that morning.
People were in good spirits Thursday morning, beaming with patriotic energy. But some folks were more focused on the present, while others had politics on their minds.
“It's the greatest day of my life,” Durango resident Dave Lobato said. “When you take time to celebrate and appreciate and understand that the only thing we really have in life is just a little bit of happiness – I think we're all interconnected.”
He said the community celebrating Independence Day “brings joy, happiness and peace.”
During the breakfast, he enjoyed sausage, gravy and biscuits, pancakes, strawberries and coffee with whipped cream.
Lobato said he’s a fifth-generation Durangoan.
“I'm retired, but I take advantage of the beautiful place here. The mountains, the water, the hiking, biking, railroad, everything,” he said.
Durango residents Sam Schmidt and Christina Slinger attended the Freedom 5K Run, Stroll & Walk, as well as the gourmet breakfast, with family and friends.
“We were late for the Fun Run … and then just moseyed our way along back to our own house,” Slinger said, laughing with Schmidt at their mishap.
Schmidt said they made it back to the breakfast and had a great time.
Phil Goulding, whose son-in-law was playing in the Southwest Civic Winds, arrived with instruments packed into his truck at 6:30 a.m., even earlier than All-American Gourmet Breakfast goers.
“I took a walk to the train station and back, had breakfast and listened to a concert. So, a busy day,” he said.
Goulding said when it comes to calling July 4 “The Fourth of July” or “Independence Day,” it must be “Independence Day.”
“Fourth of July is a date, and independence is a concept. And so it's all the things that we wish were going on right now,” he said, referring to the condition of national politics in the United States.
Specifically, Goulding took issue with Monday’s monumental 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States along ideological lines that grants the nation’s president “immunity from criminal prosecution for ‘official acts’,” as reported by Lawfare, a nonprofit publication focused on American national security.
“The Supreme Court is … making law rather than evaluating what's legal,” he said. “They've gone way overboard, taking away individual rights in this (Chief Justice of the United States John) Roberts Court. It's a complete disaster.”
He said the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential power is the “antithesis” of what Independence Day, which marks the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776, is all about.
“The President doesn't have any more immunity than the rest of us,” he said. “The Magna Carta and the Constitution were all demolished in one single vote. And that's completely wrong.”
Durango residents Jim and Emily Robertson said they had the Building Homes for Heroes BBQ & Bands Picnic at Buckley Park on their to-do list Thursday. They went to downtown Wednesday night to enjoy music and were looking forward to Durango’s first fireworks show since 2019.
Emily Robertson said music in the park, seeing friends and family and enjoying fireworks are what Independence Day is all about.
Jim Robertson, who served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1974 during Vietnam, said people should look past divisive politics and see independence as something all Americans share in common – and he wants to keep it that way.
“People gave a lot and have done a lot since signing the Declaration of Independence to keep this country a free country. And so I think everybody needs to step back and say, ‘OK, this is what this place really is,’ and not all this other stuff,” he said. “It's okay to have differences of opinion. But when they get seriously threatening, then that's not what we need. I'm a veteran, and there have been a lot of people that have served and not come home … It's an insult to them that you don't realize who we have here.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
